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Tciccritcnary  booK.  Conirriciiiorativc  oi  t 
completion  of  the  life  and  work  of  John  I 
the  eslabiishmenl  of  Presby  ler>'  in  Englan 


5EVENIH  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,  PHILADA.,  DECORATED. 


THE 

,/ 


Tercentenary  Book. 


COMMEMORATIVE  OF  THE  COMPLETION   OF 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  JOHN  KNOX,  OF  THE  HUGUENOT 

MARTYRS  OF  FRANCE,  AND  THE  ESTABLISHMENT 

OF  PRESBYTERY  IN  ENGLAND. 


CONTAINING  AN   ACCOUNT  OP  THE  "TERCENTENARY  CELEBRATION" 
AS  OBSERVED  BY  THE  PRESBYTERIANS  OF  PHILADELPHIA,  NOV. 
20,  1872;   THE  ORATION  OF  PROF.  S.  J.  WILSON,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
AND  HISTORICAL  PAPERS  OF  THE  REV.  R.  M.  PAT- 
TERSON, THE   REV.    J.    B.   DALES,  D.D.,  AND 
THE  REV.  JAMES  McCOSH,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY  THE  REV.  HENRY  C.  McCOOK. 


ILL  USTliA  TED. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

PRESBYTERIAN   BOARD  OF  PUBLICATION, 

No.  1334  Chestnut  Street, 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1873,  by 

THE   TRUSTEES   OF   THE 

PRESBYTERIAN   BOARD   OF    PUBLICATION, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Con<2;ress,  at  Washington. 


WESTCOTT&  Thomson,  Sherman   &  Co. 

Stereo! i/pers  and  Electrotypers,  Philadn.  Printers,  Phila. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

INTRODUCTORY.   By  the  Rev.  H.  C.  McCook,  Pastor  of  the 

Seventh  Presbyterian  Church,  Philadelphia 9 

JOHN  KNOX  :  An  Oration.  By  the  Rev.  Samuel  J.  Wil- 
son, D.D.,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  Biblical  and  Ecclesiastical 
History,  Western  Theological  Seminary,  Allegheny 63 

PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.  By  the  Rev. 
Robert  M.  Patterson,  Pastor  of  the  South  Presbyterian 
Church,  Philadelphia 115 

PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  By 
the  Rev.  J.  B.  Dales,  D.D.,  Pastor  of  the  Second  United 
Presbyterian  Church,  Philadelphia 175 

PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  FOREIGN  LANDS.  By  the 
Rev.  James  McCosh,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  President  of  the  Col- 
lege of  New  Jersey,  Princeton ' 209 


1* 


5 


Til  Eft  LU 


INTRODUCTORY 

BY   THE 

Rev.   H.   C.   McCOOK. 

PASTOR   OF    THE    SEVENTH    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH,    PHILADELPHIA. 


INTRODUCTORY:- 


ri^HIS  Memorial  Volume,  both  as  to  the  fact 
-»-  and  the  form  of  its  existence,  originated  thus. 
An  overture  from  the  Synod  of  Toledo,  and  also 
one  from  the  Presbyterian  Historical  Society, 
Philadelphia,  came  before  the  General  Assembly 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States, 
at  its  sessions  in  Chicago,  A.  D.  1871,  asking  the 
Assembly  to  take  order  for  the  celebration,  during 
the  year  1872,  of  the  Three  Hundredth  Anniver- 
sary of  the  completion  of  the  work  and  life  of  John 
Knox,  in  Scotland ;  the  organization  of  tlie  first 
Presbytery  in  England,  and  the  Martyrdoms  of 
St.  Bartholomew's  Day  in  France.  Upon  which 
the  following  action  was  taken  : 

''  Resolved,  1.  That  the  observance  of  this  Ter- 
centenary Year  be  recommended  to  all  our  Synods, 
Presbyteries  and  Congregations. 

Resolved,  2.  That  a  committee  of  three,  the 
Moderator,  (Rev.  Z.  M.  Humphrey,  D.  D.,)  being 
Chairman,  be  appointed  to  secure  an  address  or 
addresses,  to  be  delivered  during  the  Sessions  of 
the  Assembly  of  1872.'^ 


10  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

The  purpose  of  this  action  was  to  revive  in  the 
hearts  of  the  clergy,  and  awaken  in  the  hearts  of 
the  peoj^le  an  intelligent  interest  in  the  Noble 
Army  of  Martyrs  and  Confessors,  wdio  from  the 
very  earliest  ages,  have  professed,  defended  and 
suffered  for  the  Scriptural  doctrine  and  order 
known  as  Presbyterianism.  The  ultimate  aim 
was  to  deepen  the  attachment  of  Presbyterians  to 
their  Church  and  its  pure  and  apostolic  principles 
of  faith  and  government. 

Presbyterians,  as  a  people,  have  always  been 
distinguished  for  general  intelligence  in  matters 
concerning  the  Faith  and  the  Church.  But  it 
is  to  be  regretted  that  the  mass  of  the  American 
Branch  of  the  Family,  have  not  been  sufficiently 
well  informed  as  to  the  History  of  their  own 
Church.  This  is  due  to  several  causes.  The 
sources  of  information,  the  original  documents, 
are  not  among  us.  Without  these,  he  who  writes 
upon  the  incidents  of  the  past,  is  perforce  limited 
to  the  narrow  round  of  the  magazinist,  rather 
than  encouraged  to  the  wider  sphere  of  the  his- 
torian. This  necessary  guide,  stimulus  and  sup- 
port of  historic  study  can  only  be  had  by  a  journey 
across  the  Atlantic.  The  terrible  and  continual 
struggle  of  a  nation  comjDaratively  new,  with  the 
physical  rudeness  of  a  new  country  covering  a 
continent,  has  allowed  little  leisure,  or  ability  for 
the  accumulation  and  study  of  histoi-ical  materials. 


ORIGIN  AND   OBJECT.  11 

The  busy  Present  has  pushed  its  claims  upon  us 
so  persistently,  that  our  hands  and  thoughts  have 
been  largely  withheld  from  exploring  the  buried 
Past.  Moreover,  the  mixed  nationalities  that 
are  especially  characteristic  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  have  been  to  no  inconsiderable  degree,  a 
hindrance  to  that  concentration  of  interest  and 
ejffort,  from  which  history  profits  so  largely. 
Scotland,  England,  Holland,  France,  Ireland, 
Switzerland,  Italy,  all  have  poured  their  streams 
of  Presbyterian  peoples  into  the  currents  of  our 
ecclesiastical  life.  They  have  blended  into  a  com- 
mon national  organization,  or  have  run  here  and 
there  and  been  absorbed  by  other  denominations. 
Our  children,  many  of  them,  have  in  their  veins 
ancestral  blood  that  represents  all  the  chief  trans- 
atlantic sources  of  Presbyterianism.  It  runs  in 
sympathy  with  Covenanter,  Puritan  and  Orange- 
man, with  Huguenot,  Hollander  and  Vaudois, 
and  with  each  almost  equally.  It  is  therefore  not 
to  be  wondered  at  that  American  Presbyterians, 
with  such  diffused  sympathies  and  descent,  and 
under  such  adverse  circumstances  as  above  men- 
tioned, should  have  ftiiled  to  show  that  concen- 
trated and  personal  interest  in  the  history  of 
Presbyterian  ancestors,  which,  for  example,  is 
possible  to  the  members  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land. 

Even  with  these  hindering  influences,  however, 


12  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

there  is  much  to  encourage  wise  effort  in  the  di- 
rection of  promoting  a  love  and  knowledge  of  our 
Church  History.  With  increased  wealth  and  cul- 
ture  and  leisure  there  has  come  a  deeper  interest  in 
the  Past.  Thousands  of  tourists  annually  cross 
the  Atlantic,  and  return  from  the  scenes  and  asso- 
ciations connected  with  the  men  and  events  of 
history,  with  quickened  interest  in  all  that  belongs 
to  them.  Here  and  there  an  enthusiastic  scholar, 
overcoming  the  obstacles  of  distance,  burrows  for 
a  season  among  the  libraries  of  the  Old  World, 
and  gives  noble  testimony,  as  in  the  case  of  Mot- 
ley in  his  History  of  the  Hise  of  the  Dutch  Re- 
public, of  our  ability  to  make  valuable  contribu- 
tions to  the  world's  current  knowledge  of  the 
history  of  both  Church  and  State. 

The  variety  of  national  and  family  traditions 
and  sympathies,  which  heretofore  has  hindered 
the  concentration  of  the  thought  and  feeling  of 
American  Presbyterians,  will  in  the  future  pro- 
mote a  more  enlarged,  even  if  less  intense  interest 
in  the  general  history  of  the  martyrs  and  confes- 
sors of  our  faith  and  order.  Through  the  Provi- 
dential changes  of  two  centuries  and  a  half,  the 
Divine  Head  of  the  Church  has  already  wrought 
out  upon  our  shores  a  "  Pan-Presbyterianism " 
than  which  nothing  could  be  more  complete. 
Scotch,  English,  Irish,  Dutch,  Swiss,  French, 
Italian — elements  from  all  these  great  Presby- 


MINGLED  ANCJuSTEY,  13 

terian  centres  are  here  fused  and  kneaded  to- 
gether, and  cast  into  the  mold  of  the  American 
Church.  It  is  inevitable  that  our  sympathies 
cannot  be  limited  to  the  history  of  any  one  of  the 
above  named  fields  of  inquiry.  We  belon<'*  to  all 
of  them,  and  they  all  belong  to  us.  And  we 
shall  yet  learn  to  cherish  the  historic  records  of 
them  all  as  ours.  To  the  community  of  faith 
there  comes  the  kinshijD  of  blood  to  deepen  and 
strengthen  that  sentiment  which  must  send  forth 
our  interest  and  inquiries  throughout  the  entire 
annals  of  Christendom. 

Indeed,  there  is  no  branch  of  the  Christian 
Church,  certainly  no  one  of  the  great  Protestant 
Family,  whose  history  presents  so  many  points 
that  may  well  command  the  attention,  excite  the 
interest,  and  awaken  the  pride  of  its  adherents 
as  does  our  own  Presbyterian  Church.  And 
there  is  none  whose  history  is  more  catholic  in 
ecclesiastical  annals.  Without  any  disparage- 
ment of  our  beloved  brethren  of  other  denomina- 
tions we  may  yet  affirm  this. 

If  we  look  into  the  history  of  the  Anglican 
Church,  we  must  search  the  records  of  the  south- 
ern half  of  a  little  island  of  Europe.  If  we 
would  read  the  noble  and  thrilling  annals  of  Lu- 
theranism,  Germany  for  the  most  part  holds  out 
to  us  tJie  scroll.  But  within  what  country  of 
Europe  can  you  shut  up  the  grand  historic  doings 


14  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

of  the  Presbyterian  Church  ?  In  what  one  tongue 
can  you  read  its  annals  ? 

What  passages  in  history,  of  whatever  age  or 
people,  can  exceed  in  the  thrilling  interest  of  their 
suri'oundings,  and  in  their  momentous  conse- 
quences to  the  race,  the  events  that,  for  example, 
the  Italian  may  tell  you,  have  been  wrought  among 
the  valleys  and  2:>eaks  of  the  AIjds  of  Piedmont  ? 
— that  the  Switzer  will  narrate  as  he  paddles  you 
over  his  lakes  or  leads  you  along  his  mountain 
passes,  and  speaks  of  Calvin,  Zwingle,  Farel, 
Berne,  Zurich  and  Geneva? — that  the  Nether- 
lander will  evoke  around  the  noble  form  of  Wil- 
liam the  Silent,  or  weave  out  of  the  stormv  ad- 
v^entures  of  the  "  Wild  Beggars  of  the  Sea"  ? 

What  memories  follow  us  through  sunny  France 
as  we  trace  the  sufferings  and  the  valiant  strivings 
of  the  Huguenots !  What  tales  the  Scotchman 
tells  as  we  walk  over  hill  and  heather,  and  recall 
the  days  of  the  Covenants !  AVith  what  mingled 
feelings  of  pride  and  regret  do  we  listen  while  the 
Englishman  recites  how  Presbyterians  saved  the 
liberties  of  England,  saw  their  Church  established 
in  the  realm,  and  then  fell  before  the  blow  that, 
while  it  smote  to  the  earth,  yet  gave  history  that 
imperishable  tablet  upon  which  is  written  the 
heroism  of  the  Two  Thousand  non-conforming 
divines,  who  gave  up  position,  influence,  com- 
fort that  they  might  keep  their  conscience  clean. 


ORIGIN  AND  OBJECT.  15 

And,  filially,  what  Irish  Presbyterian  has  not  felt 
his  quick,  warm  blood  beat  quicker  and  glow  more 
warmly  as  he  described  the  siege  of  Londonderry, 
or  sang  of  the  Battle  of  Boyne  AVater? 

Surely  with  a  spiritual  ancestry  drawn  from 
men  and  women  of  such  heroic  blood,  with  a 
Church  History  thus  associated  with  so  many  of 
the  noblest  and  most  interesting  eras  and  incidents 
in  the  annals  of  the  human  race,  we  should  be 
unworthy  of  our  high  descent  were  we  to  let  the 
records  of  the  past  die  away  from  our  memories. 
And  yet,  remembering  how  truly  Catholic  the  life 
and  work  of  our  beloved  Church  has  been  and  is ; 
remembering  how  broad  have  been  the  sympathies 
of  Presbyterianism  with  all  who  have  labored  for 
political  and  religious  liberty,  with  every  man 
striving  for  freedom  of  conscience  and  the  right 
of  independent  judgment,  we  shall  not  suffer  this 
laudable  pride  and  interest  in  our  Church  to 
degenerate  into  the  spirit  of  the  sectary  and  the 
bigot.  Dearer  to  us  than  any  Denominational 
name  will  ever  be  the  hallowed  title  of  the 
Universal  Brotherhood  —  Christian.  But  we 
shall  not  be  the  worse  Christians  by  being  the 
better  Presbyterians.  AVe  sliall  not  be  the  worse 
but  the  better  Defenders  of  the  Faith  Catholic, 
by  cherishing  tenderly  and  espousing  warmly  the 
things  that  belong  to  our  own  spiritual  House- 
hold.     Not  less  faithful  I  v  but  the  more,  shall  we 


^(y  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

bear  witness  with  others  for  the  common  truths 
of  the  Evangel,  by  being  true  to  the  testimony 
which  now — as  in  all  the  past  it  has  been — is  our 
only  justification  before  the  world  for  our  existence 
as  a  distinct  Communion  of  the  Christian  Church. 
There  can  be  no  other  than  good  results  follow- 
ing this  deeper  and  more  intelligent  interest  in 
our  Ecclesiastical  History.  Whatever  benefits 
the  study  of  History  in  general  can  confer,  will 
in  large  measure  follow.  The  increased  enlight- 
enment of  our  own  membership  as  to  their  doc- 
trines and  order ;  a  more  fervent  and  intelligent 
loyaky  to  their  own  Church ;  a  firmer  adherence 
to  principle  through  tlie  influence  of  the  noble 
examples  of  the  martyrs  and  confessors  of  other 
days ;  a  Catholicism  which  shall  be  none  the  less 
hearty  and  true  because  held  within  the  bounds 
of  Scriptural  orthodoxy ; — these  are  advantages 
of  the  utmost  importance  to  the  higher  welfare  of 
our  Zion.  It  was  not  therefore  strange  that  the 
action  of  the  General  Assembly  above  cited,  look- 
ing to  these  manifest  benefits,  was  gladly  received 
by  the  thoughtful  friends  of  the  Church,  and 
arrangements  for  carrying  out  its  provisions  most 
heartily  entered  upon.  In  the  Assembly  of  1872 
convened  in  the  city  of  Detroit,  a  special  meeting 
was  held,  at  which  addresses  were  made  by  Rev. 
Edward  P.  Humphrey,  D.  D.,  of  Louisville,  Ken- 
tucky, and  Rev.  Samuel  M.  Hopkins,  D.  D.,  of 


GENERAL  CELEBRATION.  17 

Auburn,  New  York.  The  meeting  was  marked 
by  the  most  profound  enthusiasm  and  interest. 
The  theme  of  Dr.  Humphrey's  address  was 
"  John  Knox  ;"  that  of  Dr.  Hopkins,  the  "  Hu- 
guenots." 

During  the  year,  similar  celebrations  were  held 
by  Synods,  Presbyteries,  communities  and  con- 
gregations throughout  the  entire  bounds  of  the 
Church.  Never  before  had  there  been  so  many 
and  so  well  used  opportunities  to  spread  among 
the  people  intelligence  of  the  noble  men,  the  his- 
toric deeds,  and  the  Scriptural  principles  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church.  The  people  responded  to 
the  efforts  of  the  clergy,  with  a  heartiness  that 
oftentimes  swelled  into  enthusiasm.  In  every 
case,  so  far  as  has  been  ascertained,  the  Tercen- 
tenary celebrations  were  attended  by  large  audi- 
ences, whose  interest  in  the  subjects  discussed  was, 
without  exception,  not  only  equal  to  but  far  beyond 
the  expectation  of  managers  and  speakers.  The 
several  families  of  Presbyterians  forgot  their  minor 
differences,  and  met,  sang,  prayed,  rejoiced,  wept, 
and  applauded  together,  moved  by  a  common  rev- 
erence for  their  common  spiritual  ancestors,  devo- 
tion to  their  Evangelical  principles,  and  gratitude 
to  the  Covenant  Keeping  God,  who  had  blessed 
the  Church  and  the  world  with  the  priceless  gifts 
of  such  memories  and  such  men.  Multitudes  of 
hearts,  young  and  old,  received  a  new  impulse  in 


18  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

the  j)ath  of  duty  and  devotion,  while  they  followed, 
through  their  lives  of  conflict,  suffering,  triumph, 
death,  those  old  Knights  of  the  Evangel,  Defend- 
ers of  the  Faith,  Martyrs  and  Confessors  of 
Christ,  Heroes  and  Saints  of  the  Church  Militant, 
"  of  whom  the  world  was  not  worthy." 

Among  the  many  Tercentenary  meetings  above 
referred  to  that  which  was  held  by  the  Synod  and 
City  of  Philadelphia  was  the  most  complete  in  its 
arrangements,  remarkable  for  its  success,  and  far- 
reachins;  in  its  influence.  Indeed  it  assumed — 
although  such  was  not  the  original  thought — a 
national  character  and  became  in  fact  representa- 
tive of  the  whole  Church. 

Early  in  the  summer,  the  Presbyterian  Minis- 
ters^ Association  of  Philadelphia,  appointed  a 
Committee  of  ministers  and  elders,  of  whom 
Rev.  William  P.  Breed,  D.  D.,  was  Chairman,  to 
which  was  committed  the  general  arrangements 
for  the  proposed  celebration.  This  Committee 
reported,  recommending  that  the  celebration  be 
held  on  Wednesday,  November  20th,  the  Three 
Hundredth  Anniversary  of  the  establishment  of 
Presbytery,  at  Wandsworth,  near  London,  Eng- 
land ;  the  exercises  of  the  day  to  be  in  the  Seventh 
Presbyterian  Church,  Broad  Street  and  Penn 
Square,  above  Chestnut ;  the  evening  exercises  to 
be  in  the  New  House  of  the  Presbyterian  Board 
of  Publication,  and  in  connection  with  the  formal 


PHILADELPHIA  CELEBRATION.  19 

opening  of  that  building.  The  details  of  the  pro- 
gramme, as  adopted  and  carried  out,  appear  fully 
in  the  following  pages,  which  are  simply  a  Me- 
morial of  the  great  occasion  of  which  they  are 
the  official  report. 

The  day  which  had  been  chosen  proved  to  be 
propitious,  cool  but  clear  and  bright.  Invitations 
had  been  sent  to  the  professors  in  our  Theological 
Seminaries,  to  professors  in  a  number  of  the  Col- 
leges, to  the  editors  of  Religious  papers,  and  to 
others  of  official  or  personal  distinction.  A  num- 
ber of  these  were  present.  There  was  a  large 
attendance  of  clergymen  from  New  Jersey,  New 
York,  Maryland,  Delaware,  and  Pennsylvania. 
At  ten  o'clock  the  invited  guests,  together  with 
the  ministers  and  elders  present,  to  the  number 
of  near  four  hundred,  assembled  at  the  Pres- 
byterian House,  and  marched  in  procession  to 
the  Seventh  Church,  Kev.  William  E.  Schenck, 
D.  D.,  acting  as  Marshal,  assisted  by  Rev.  Drs. 
R.  H.  Allen  and  Alfred  Nevin.  They  were  wel- 
comed to  the  Church  by  the  organ  and  choir,  and 
occupied  the  platform  and  seats  which  had  been 
reserved  for  them.  The  house  was  already  filled 
to  its  utmost  capacity,  and  so  continued  during 
the  entire  services  of  morning  and  afternoon. 
Indeed,  the  interest  manifested  by  the  audience 
was  unabated  to  the  very  end,  the  close  of  the 
exercises  at  a  late  hour  in  the  afternoon,  being 


20  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

marked  by  as  much  enthusiasm,  as  the  openiug 
exercises  of  the  morning.  . 

The  meeting  was  called  to  order  by  the  Hon. 
William  Strong,  Associate  Justice  of  the  United 
States  Court,  who  had  been  appointed  to  23reside 
at  the  morning  session.  The  opening  devotional 
services  were :  reading  the  Scriptures,  Psalm 
Forty-sixth,  by  Rev.  T.  W.  J.  Wylie,  D.  D.,  of 
the  First  Reformed  Presbyterian  Church,  Phila- 
delphia ;  Prayer  by  Rev.  Z.  M.  Humj^hrey,  D.  D., 
Moderator  of  the  Assembly  of  1871,  and  pastor 
of  Calvary  Church,  Philadelphia;  and  Singing  by 
the  congregation  of  the  Old  Hundredth  Psalm, 
beginning, 

"  All  people  that  on  earth  do  dwell 
Sing  to  the  Lord  with  cheerful  voice." 

The  Memorial  Discourse  was  then  delivered  by 
Rev.  Samuel  J.  Wilson,  D.  D.,  LL.D.,  Profes- 
sor of  Biblical  and  Ecclesiastical  History  in  the 
Western  Theological  Seminary,  Alleghany.  The 
oration  produced  a  deep  impression  upon  the  vast 
congregation,  and  at  the  close  of  the  meeting  the 
desire  was  expressed  on  all  sides  that  it  should  be 
repeated  in  the  Academy  of  Music.  This  desire 
was  subsequently  consummated,  on  the  evening 
of  January  22d,  1873,  in  the  presence  of  four 
thousand  people,  fully  as  many  more,  it  was  esti- 
mated, being  prevented  from  attending  by  inability 


MORNING   SERVICE.  2i 

to  secure  tickets.  The  statement  of  tliis  fact  not 
inappropriately  belongs  to  a  report  of  this  Ter- 
centennial, of  which  it  was  in  fact,  a  sequel ;  and 
further,  as  showing  the  profound  interest  awakened 
by  the  celebration  itself.  It  was  well  worth  all 
the  expenditure  in  money  and  time  and  labor, 
had  no  other  results  obtained,  to  have  secured  the 
grand  fact  of  such  an  audience,  swayed  under  the 
power  of  such  a  speaker  and  such  a  theme,  ap- 
plauding to  the  echo  the  names,  the  deeds,  the 
kirk  and  the  principles  of  our  noble  Presbyterian 
sires. 

The  address  of  Dr.  Wilson  was  followed  by  the 
singing  of  the  hymn, 

"  Come  let  us  join  our  friends  above 
That  have  obtained  the  prize." 

The  hymn  was  sung  to  the  familiar  tune  of  "  Dun- 
dee,'' which  Burns  has  immortalized  in  his  "  Cot- 
ter's Saturday  Night."  The  sentiment  was  in  such 
happy  sympathy  with  the  tone  of  the  oration  and 
the  feelings  of  the  audience,  that  the  people 
caught  up  the  melody  with  their  whole  hearts 
and  voices.     Never  before,  perhaps,  did 

" — Dundee's  wild-warbling  measures  rise." 

from  human  lips  with  greater  pathos  and  power. 
Mau}^  were  melted  to  tears.  The  Tercentenary 
was  already  a  success ! 


22  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

The  services  of  the  morning  closed  with  the 
benediction  pronounced  by  that  honored  champion 
of  the  faith,  Rev.  Geo.  W.  Musgrave,  D.  D.  As 
the  congregation  retired,  a  song  written  for  the  oc- 
casion, entitled  "  Three  Hundred  Years  Ago," 
was  sung  by  the  choir. 

The  services  were  resumed  at  3  o'clock,  after- 
noon, the  Rev.  Wm.  P.  Breed,  D.  D.,  pastor  of 
the  West  Spruce  Street  Church,  Philadelphia, 
presiding.  After  prayer  by  Rev.  Herrick  John- 
son, D.  D.,  pastor  of  the  First  Church,  a  histori- 
cal sketch  of  Presbyterianism  in  Philadelphia, 
was  read  by  Rev.  Robert  M.  Patterson,  pastor  of 
the  South  Church,  Philadelphia.  The  congrega- 
tion then  sang  the  hymn  : 

"  These  Western  States,  at  Thy  command 
Rose  from  dependence  and  distress, 
Prosperity  now  crowns  the  land. 
And  millions  join  Thy  Name  to  bless." 

Rev.  J.  B.  Dales,  D.  D.,  pastor  of  the  Second 
United  Presbyterian  Church,  Philadelj)hia,  fol- 
lowed with  a  historical  j)aper  on  ''  Presbyterian- 
ism in  the  United  States."     The  hymn 

''  Am  I  a  soldier  of  the  Cross," 

was  sung  to  the  tune  of*'  Martyrdom,"  after  which 
Rev.  James  McCosh,  D.  D.,  LL.D.,  President  of 
the  College  of  New  Jersey,  Princeton,  read  a  paper 
on  "  Presbyterianism  in  Foreign  Countries." 


AFTERNOON  SERVICE.  23 

On  motion  of  ex-Governor  Pollock,  the  thanks 
of  the  meeting  were  rendered  to  the  speakers  of 
the  day  for  their  addresses.  The  motion  was  ac- 
companied with  a  few  eloquent  words  that  more 
truly  than  is  usual  in  such  ordinary  courtesies, 
expressed  the  great  satisfaction  and  gratitude  of 
the  auditors. 

On  motion  of  George  H.  Stuart,  Esq.,  thanks 
were  rendered  by  a  rising  vote  to  the  pastor,  el- 
ders, trustees  and  congregation  of  the  Seventh 
Church,  for  the  welcome  which  had  been  extended 
to  the  audience,  and  for  the  additional  interest 
and  pleasure  that  had  been  given  to  the  occasion 
by  the  beautiful  and  appropriate  decorations  with 
which  the  platform  and  walls  were  adorned. 
After  the  Doxology  the  Benediction  was  pro- 
nounced by  E,ev.  Thomas  Murphy,  D.  D.,  pastor 
of  the  Frankford  Church. 

Before  the  benediction,  at  the  request  of  many 
in  the  audience,  the  chairman  called  upon  Mr. 
McCook,  pastor  of  the  Church,  to  give  the  key  to 
the  historical  designs  that  entered  into  the  deco- 
rations. These  designs  had  been  prepared  with 
much  labor  and  expense,  and  were  a  gift  to  the 
''Tercentenary  Celebration"  by  the  gentlemen 
of  the  Seventh  Church.  The  general  i)lan,  with 
the  historic  details,  had  been  suggested  by  the 
pastor.  But  for  the  exquisite  taste  with  which 
the  details  had  been  wrought  into  artistic  shape. 


•24  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

die  Church  is  mdebted  to  Mr.  John  Gibson,  Chair- 
man of  the  Committee  on  Decorations.  An  en- 
graving of  the  designs  over  the  pulpit  and  plat- 
form forms  the  frontispiece  of  this  book. 

The  general  purpose  of  the  decorations  was  to 
present  to  the  eye  an  outline  of  the  places,  men 
and  events  most  distinguished  in  the  different  eras 
of  the  Church,  or  most  closely  associated  with 
the  special  objects  to  be  commemorated.  It  was 
thought  that  the  minds  of  the  j^eople  might  thus 
be  reached  through  "  Eye-Gate,"  while  the  speak- 
ers should  assail  them  through  "  Ear-Gate,"  and 
the  great  aim  of  the  Tercentenary  furthered 
in  a  way  agreeable  to  the  assembly,  and  not  in- 
appropriate to  the  occasion.  It  was  remembered 
that  the  day  for  which  they  were  prepared  was  a 
Jubilee,  a  celebration.  And  it  was  agreed — the 
general  committee  also  approving — that  the  j)eople 
of  the  Seventh  Church  might  so  far  depart  from  the 
simple  and  undemonstrative  ways  of  our  staid 
Presbyterian  fathers,  as  to  give  the  sacred  edifice 
a  festal  seeming. 

A  large  platform  had  been  erected  for  the  ac- 
commodation of  officers,  speakers,  and  invited 
guests.  On  this,  immediately  in  front  of  the 
reading  desk,  stood  three  Century  plants,  a  floral 
symbol  of  the  ''Tercentennial."  Of  the  four 
columns  behind  the  pulpit,  (see  Frontispiece)  the 
two  inner  ones  commemorated  the  Churches  of 


THE  CONTINENT. 


25 


Scotland  and  Euoland,  the  two  outer  ones  those 
of  the  Continent  of  Europe  and  the  United  States. 
Each  cohimn  was  surmounted  by  a  blue  shield, 
with  gilt  edging.  On  these  were  inscribed  the 
names  of  places  of  special  note  in  the  Church 
history  of  the  countries  represented.  Around 
each  column  were  passed  eight  canvas  bands 
painted  blue,  and  bordered  with  scarlet,  on  which 
were  laid  in  white  letters  the  names  of  worthies 
of  the  Church.  Between  these  bands  were  en- 
twined wreaths  of  evergreen.  Thus,  on  the 
column  rejDresenting  the  Continent,  were,  on  the 
shield,  against  the  capital,  the  following, 


On  the  shaft,  first  band,  Waldenses ;  second, 
Huguenots ;  third,  Calvin ;  fourth,  Zwingle ; 
fifth,  Farel ;  sixth,  Coligni ;  seventh,  William  of 
Orange ;  eighth,  D'Aubigne.  On  the  column 
representing  Scotland,  on  the  shield, 


26 


THE  TERCENTENARY 


lONA 

S^-  ANDREWS 

S'  GILES 


lona  was  the  seat  of  the  ancient  Culdee  Presby- 
ters;   St.    Andrews   the    place    at   which    John 
Knox  was  called  to  the  ministry  and  began  to 
preach,  and  where  the  reformed  worship  was  first 
set  up  under  its  prior  James  Stewart,  afterAvard 
the  Good  Regent  Murray ;  St.  Giles  the  Edin- 
burgh Church  in  which  the  great  reformer  ex- 
ercised his  ministry  during  many  eventful  years 
of  his  life.      The  names  on  the  shaft  representa- 
tive   of    Scotland    were,    first,    Knox;    second, 
Hamilton  —  Wishart;    third,    Melville;    fourth, 
Regent  Murray  ;  fifth,  Gillespie — Bailie — Ruth- 
erford— Henderson, — (the  four  Scotch  Commis- 
sioners to  the  Westminster  Assembly,  the  latter 
perhaps  the  central  figure  of  the  National  Cove- 
nant days)  —  sixth.  Earl  of  Sutherland  ;  —  (the 
first  signer  of  the  Covenant) — seventh,  Davidson  ; 
eighth,  Chalmers. 


ENGLAND. 


27 


The  third  column  was  thus  arranged ;  on  the 
shield, 


-^i 


ENGLAND 


WESTMINSTER 

The  representative  names  were,  first,  Wiekliffe ; 
second,  Tyndal ;  third,  Pym ;  fourth,  Hampden  ; 
fifth,  Calamy ;  sixth,  Gouge — (the  moderator  of 
the  first  English  Synod)  —  seventh,  Reynolds; 
eighth,  William  and  Mary. 

On  the    column   appropriated    to  tlie  United 
States  were,  on  the  shield, 


UNITED  STATES 


NEW  ENGLAND 
PURITANS 


PHILADELPHIA 


28  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

The  tablet  to  the  "  New  England  Puritans,"  rep- 
resented the  very  large  element  of  Presbyterian 
Puritans  that  entered  into  the  original  constitu- 
ency of  the  Congregational  Churches  of  New 
England.  The  names  on  the  columns  were, 
frst,  McKemie  ;  second,  Andrews  ;  third, 
Witherspoon  ;  fourth,  Tennent  ;  fifth.  The 
Alexanders  ;  sixth,  MacMillan  ;  seventh  Barnes ; 
eighth,  Bullard. 

Along  the  cornice  above  the  columns  was  dis- 
played the  Scripture  text,  Ephesians  ii :  20,  "Built 
upon  the  foundation  of  the  apostles  and  prophets, 
Jesus  Chkist  himself  being  the  chief  Corner 
Stone." 

In  the  large  open  space  between  the  two  inner 
columns,  immediately  back  of  the  pulpit,  forming 
the  centre  piece  of  the  design,  was  the  Blue  Ban- 
ner of  the  Covenant  crossed  with  the  American 
National  Colors.  Below  the  intersection  of  the 
flao;-staves  was  a  beautiful  floriated  diamond- 
shaped  monogram,  three  Boman  C's,  [c  C  c] 
having  the  double  signification  "  Three  Centu- 
ries," and  "  Christ's  Crown  and  Covenant,"  the 
banner-cry  of  the  Covenanters.  The  Covenant 
Banner  was  of  blue  silk,  made  for  the  occasion, 
the  chief  authority  for  the  form,  a  scarlet  St. 
Andrew's  Cross  in  a  field  of  blue,  being  the 
learned  antiquary  Sir  Walter  Scott,  whose  in- 
formation concerning  the  banner  borne   by  the 


THE  BANNER.  29 

ftiithful  defenders  of  the  National  Covenant 
would  ap23ear  to  be  more  trustworthy  than  his 
representations,  or  more  properly  mis-representa- 
tions, of  the  cliaracters  of  those  gallant  and  per- 
secuted men.  It  will  be  of  interest  to  most  readers 
to  read  some  of  the  references  which  were  un- 
covered in  the  search  after  the  true  form  of  this 
banner,  and  which  determined  the  construction 
as  above  described.  The  following  are  from  "  Old 
Mortality."  At  the  head  of  Chapter  V,  stands 
this  quotation  : 

Arouse  thee,  youth !— it  is  no  human  call- 
God's  Church  is  leaguered— haste  to  man  the  wall  ; 
Haste  where  the  Bedcross  banners  wave  on  high, 
Signal  of  honored  death,  or  victory ! 

James  Duff. 

In  Chapter  XXIV,  this  passage  occurs  in  the 
description  of  the  siege  of  Tillietudlem  Castle : 
"  With  this  answer  the  ambassador  returned  to 
those  by  whom  he  had  been  sent.  He  had  no 
sooner  reached  the  main  body,  than  a  murmur 
was  heard  among  the  multitude,  and  there  was 
raised  in  front  of  their  ranks  an  ample  red  flag, 
the  borders  of  ivhich  were  edged  with  bluer  Chap- 
ter XXVIII  closes  Avith  th<3  following  sentence : 
"And  when  the  sun  arose,  the  5mr/e^  and  blue 
colors  of  the  Scottish  Covenant  floated  from  the 
Keep  of  Tillietudlem." 

In  the  opening  sentences  of  the  Thirty ^fifth 

3* 


30  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

Chapter  of  "  Waverly,"  is  this  passage :  *'  Waverly 
and  his  new  friend  followed  him,  though  probably 
he  would  have  dispensed  with  their  attendance. 
They  soon  recognized  in  solemn  march,  first,  the 
performer  upon  the  drum  ;  secondly,  a  large  flag 
of  four  compai'tments,  on  which  were  inscribed 
the  words :  Covenant,  Kirk,  King,  Kingdoms." 

In  one  of  the  notes  on  "  The  Battle  of  Both- 
well  Bridge,"  in  "  The  Minstrelsy  of  the  Scottish 
Border,"  there  is  a  curious  account  of  the  origin 
of  the  use  of  blue  as  the  favorite  color  of  the 
Covenanters.  This  the  author  concludes  w^ith  the 
remark  :  *'  I  have  seen  one  of  the  ancient  banners 
of  the  Covenanters  ;  it  was  divided  into  four  com- 
partments, inscribed  with  the  words — Chinst — 
Covenant — King — Kingdom.  fSimilar  standards 
are  mentioned  in  Spalding's  curious  and  minute 
narrative,  vol.  ii.,  j)p-  182,  245." 

In  the  Editor's  Preface  to  the  late  beautiful 
edition  of  "  The  Scots  Worthies,"  by  John  Howie, 
of  Lochgoin,  occurs  this  passage  :  In  a  pamphlet, 
which  first  appeared  fifty  years  ago,  one  of  the 
Howies  has  the  honor  assigned  him  of  announcing 
the  tidings  (of  the  Bevolution  of  1688)  to  the 
neighborhood  around.  "  What  do  I  see  ?"  said 
the  laird  of  Torfoot,  alarmed  at  the  approach  of 
a  horseman,  and  making  ready  for  any  danger 
that  might  be  at  hand — "  What  do  I  see  ?  But 
one  trooper  ?    And  that  motley  crowd  is  a  rabble, 


THE  BANNER.  31 

not  a  troop.  That  trooper  is  not  of  Cla verse's 
band :  nor  does  lie  belong  to  Douglas,  nor  to 
Inglis,  nor  to  Straclian's  dragoons.  He  waves  a 
small  flag.  I  can  discover  the  scarlet  and  the  blue 
colors  of  the  Covenanter'' s  flag.  Ha !  Welcome 
you,  John  Howie,  of  Lochgoin.  But  what  news  ? 
Lives  our  country  ?  Lives  the  good  old  cause  ?" 
"Glorious  news !"  exclaimed  Howie;  "Scotland 
forever !  She  is  free.  The  tyrant  James  has 
abdicated.  The  Stuarts  are  banished  by  an  in- 
dignant nation.  Orange  triumphs.  Our  wounds 
are  binding  up.  Huzza !  Scotland  and  King 
William  and  the  Covenant  forever!" 

The  fact  seems  to  be  that  there  Avas  the  same 
liberty  and  diversity  in  the  selection  of  a  stand- 
ard on  the  part  of  various  local  bands  among  the 
Covenanters,  that  we  know  to  have  existed  among 
the  original  troops  of  our  own  Kevolution,  until 
the  several  favorite  flags  had  crystallized  in  the 
present  form  of  the  national  colors.  It  is  possible 
that  the  same  result  followed  among  the  Cove- 
nanters. But  if  so,  the  form  finally  adopted  and 
used  has  not  been  discovered  by  the  writer,  neither 
from  books  at  his  command,  nor  from  a  consider- 
able correspondence  with  such  of  our  citizens  of 
Scotch  descent  as  w^ere  thought  most  likely  to 
know.  It  is  hoped  that  some  one  to  whom  these 
lines  may  come,  can  give  the  desired  information. 

Above  these  banners,  in  the  same  open  space. 


32 


THE  TERCENTENARY. 


were  arranged  three  tablets,  especially  commemor- 
ative of  the  three  principal  objects  which  gave  oc- 
casion to  the  celebration.  The  tablets  were  sur- 
rounded by  borders  on  which  were  painted  the 
conventional  floral  symbols  of  the  several  king- 
doms of  Scotland,  France,  and  England,  and  en- 
compassed by  wreaths  of  evergreen.  On  the  right 
was  the  tablet  to  the  Church  of  Scotland,  bordered 
with  the  thistle,  and  inscribed  : 


The  inscription  certainly  should  have  removed 
the  impression,  which  nevertheless  inadvertently 
found  utterance  in  outside  quarters,  that  the  oc- 
casion was  a  celebration  of  the  "  Third  century 
of  Presbyterianism  !"  Succat  is  the  surname  of 
St.  Patrick,  the  Apostle  of  Ireland.  He  was  a 
Scotchman,  born  on  the  banks  of  the  Clyde,  near 


ST.  PATRICK.  33 

Glasgow,  A.  D.  372,  just  fifteen  centuries  ago. 
The  bond  that  thus  united  the  early  Kirk  of 
Scotland  and  the  Church  of  Ireland,  may  yet  be 
seen  in  the  intimate  relations  between  the  Pres- 
byterians of  the  two  countries.  This  inscription 
to  Succat  was  intended  to  be  a  fitting  recognition 
of  the  large  and  worthy  element  in  the  American 
Church  whose  ecclesiastical  descent  is  drawn  from 
the  historic  men  of  old  Ulster,  and  who  are  known 
among  us  as  the  "  Scotch-Irish."  That  St.  Patrick 
was  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  principles  of  the 
Culdees,  and  therefore  a  sound  Presbyterian,  is 
apparent  from  the  following  quotation  from  Arch- 
bishop Ussher  :  "  We  read  in  Nennius  that  at  the 
beginning  St.  Patrick  founded  365  churches,  and 
ordained  365  bishops  and  3000  (elders)  presby- 
ters." One  bishop  and  about  eight  elders  for 
every  church !  which  looks  very  much  like  the 
bishops  and  elders  of  our  modern  Presbyterian 
congregations. 

The  central  tablet  was  to  the  martyred  Presby- 
terians of  France,  and  was  surrounded  by  a  border 
of  lilies.  The  word  Huguenot  is  variously  de- 
rived ;  by  D'Aubigne  from  a  French  corruption 
of  the  German  word  Eidgenossen — the  Genevese 
confederates  being  called  Eiynots,  confederates 
Others  derive  it  from  Hugues,  the  name  of  one 
of  the  Genevese  leaders.  The  inscription  upon 
this  tablet  rejid, 


34 


''HE   TERCENTENARY 


On  the  left  was  the  tablet  to  the  English  Pres- 
byterians, surrounded  with  the  conventional  roses 
of  "  merry  England."    It  was  inscribed  as  follows  : 


■^'\] 


2000 
NON  CONFORMING 

PRESBYTERIAN 

DIVINES 

AUGUST-24* 


THE  NONCONFORMISTS. 


35 


The  event  commemorated  occurred  shortly  after 
the  restoration  of  Charles  II.,  by  whom  a  law  was 
enacted,  known  as  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  which 
required  all  clergymen  not  only  to  use  the  estab- 
lished liturgy,  but  also  to  renounce  and  condemn 
the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  Presbyterian 
ordination,  and  all  efforts  for  changing  the  then 
present  establishment.  About  two  thousand  min- 
isters, chiefly  Presbyterians,  whose  consciences 
would  not  allow  them  to  conform  to  this  act, 
abandoned  their  churches  and  livings,  and  sub- 
jected themselves  to  the  sufferings  and  persecu- 
tions which  followed. 

Below  the  Banner  of  the  Covenant  was  placed 
a  model  of  the  seal  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  a 
Burning  Bush,  with  the  Latin  motto, ''  Nee  tamen 
consumebatur," — And  yet  it  was  not  consumed. 


36  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

The  seal  of  the  Church  of  Ireland  is  similar  to 
this,  the  motto,  however,  being  diffei-ent,  ''Ardens, 
sed  virens  " — Burning  but  flourishing  ;  a  varia- 
tion not  inappropriately  describing  the  warm  and 
fresh  hearted  children  of  the  Green  Isle. 

Opposite  this,  beneath  the  American  flag,  was 
what  may  perhaps  be  called  the  seal  of  the  Ameri- 
can Presbyterian  Church,  viz.,  the  seal  of  the 
Trustees  of  the  General  Assembly.  It  is  a  figure 
of  the  brazen  serpent  lifted  up  upon  a  cross.  The 
motto  surrounding  it  is  not  on  the  seal  itself, 
but  was  given  to  the  artist,  by  the  writer,  to  satisfy 
his  notions  of  harmony.  The  idea  of  the  figure, 
it  was  inferred,  was  this,  that  in  the  wilderness  of 
this  new  country  our  Presbyterian  fathers  had 
been  called  to  lift  up  the  one  only  Remedy  for 
sin,  the  Hope  of  the  nation  as  of  every  soul. 
The  quotation  from  the  Vulgate  "  Vox  clamantis 
in  deserto" — The  voice  of  one  crying  in  the 
wilderness — ^was  therefore  given  for  a  motto,  as 
expressing  the  thought  that  our  beloved  Church 
had  been  in  the  past — and  indeed  is  still — a  voice 
crying  in  the  midst  of  our  wild  jorairies  and  for- 
ests and  mountains  of  the  far  West,  "  Prepare  ye 
the  way  of  the  Lord."  As  there  was  at  that  time 
no  thought  of  perpetuating  these  symbols  through 
this  Memorial  Book,  the  reader  may  look  chari- 
tably upon  this  liberty,  and  put  it  to  the  credit  of 
"  poetic  license."     But  seriously,  would  it  not  be 


AMERICAN  CHURCH  SEAL. 


37 


well  that  the  church  should  have  this  or  some 
otlier  symbol  which  might  be  popularly  known  as 
our  Church  seal?  Or,  is  not  the  seal  of  the 
Trustees  of  the  Assembly  entitled  to  claim  this 
character  ? 


Between  the  two  columns  on  the  right  of  the 
platform  were  these  tablets :  above,  a  seal  com- 
memorative of  the  Waldensian  Church,  a  Lily 
growing  in  the  midst  of  a  bed  of  thorns  with  the 
motto  "  Emergo" — I  struggle  through.  This  was 
copied  from  a  rough  sketch  made  several  years 
ago  by  a  minister  of  the  Waldensian  Church, 
visiting  this  country,  and  was  represented  as 
being  a  favorite  seal  or  design  of  the  Church. 
The  ancient  seal  is  well  known  to  be  the  flaming 
torch,  with  the  motto — "  Lux  lucet  in  tenebris  " 
— The  light  shineth  in  the  darkness.  The  design 
which  was   used,  whatever   may  be   its   official 

4 


38 


THE  TERCENTENARY. 


character,  is  certainly  beautifully  expressive  of 
the  history  of  that  ancient  Presbyterian  people. 


Beneath  this,  was  a  tablet  to  the  Dutch  Church, 
whose  terrible  sufferings  under  Alva,  and  whose 
noble  struggles  and  triumph  under  William  the 
Silent,  present  one  of  the  most  thrilling  records 
in  the  annals  of  Presbyterianism.  In  the  early 
stages  of  the  conflict  with  the  Spanish  power,  the 
term  "  beggars  "  was  applied  to  the  opposition  by 
one  of  the  Spanish  party.  At  a  banquet  of  some 
of  the  Dutch  nobles,  in  the  heat  of  after  dinner 
excess,  this  indignity  was  discussed  with  much 
warmth.  Great  was  the  indignation  of  all  that 
their  enemies  should  have  dared  to  stigmatize  as 
beggars,  a  band  of  gentlemen  with  the  best  blood 
of  the  land  in  their  veins.  Their  host,  Brederode, 
who  apprehended  the  power  of  an  original,  strik- 
ing and  popular  epithet,  assured  them  that  noth- 


BEGGARS  OF  HOLLAND. 


39 


ing  could  be  more  fortunate.  "  They  call  us  beg- 
gars !  Let  us  accept  the  name.  We  will  contend 
with  the  inquisition,  but  remain  loyal  to  the  King, 
even  till  compelled  to  wear  the  beggar's  sack."  He 
then  beckoned  to  one  of  the  pages,  who  brought 
him  a  leathern  wallet,  such  as  was  worn  at  the  day 
by  professional  mendicants,  together  with  a  large 
wooden  bowl,  which  also  formed  part  of  their 
regular  appurtenances.  Brederode  immediately 
hung  the  wallet  around  his  neck,  filled  the  bowl 
with  wine,  and  drained  it  at  a  draught.  "  Long 
live  the  beggars  ! "  he  cried,  as  he  wiped  his  beard 


and  set  the  bowl  down.  ''  Vivent  les  gueulx^ 
Then,  for  the  first  time,  says  Motley,  from  the 
lips  of  those  reckless  nobles  rose  the  famous  cry, 
which  was  so  often  to  ring  over  land  and  sea, 
amid  blazing  cities,  on  blood-stained  decks, 
the   smoke    and    carnage    of    many    a 


through 


40 


THE   TERCENTENARY. 


stricken  field.  The  humor  of  Brederode  was 
hailed  with  deafening  shouts  of  applause.  Shouts 
of  '^Vivent  les  gueulx^^  shook  the  walls  of  the 
stately  mansion.  The  shibboleth  was  invented. 
Their  enemies  had  provided  them  with  a  spell 
which  was  to  prove,  in  other  days,  potent  enough 
to  start  a  spirit  from  palace  or  hovel,  forest  or 
wave,  as  the  deeds  of  the  "wild  beggars,"  the 
'^  wood  beggars,"  and  the  "  beggars  of  the  sea" 
taught  Philip  at  last  to  understand  the  nation 
which  he  had  driven  to  madness.* 

Between  the  two  columns  on  tlie  left  of  the 
platform  were  the  following  designs :  Above,  the 
seal  of  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Publication,  an 
open  book  with  light  radiating  from  beneath,  on 
the  open  pages  the  motto  "  Sit  Lux," — Let  there 
be  light ! 


■^  Else  of  the  Dutch  Republic,  vol.  i.,  p.  521, 


WESTMINSTER  ASSEMBLY. 


41 


Beneath  this  was  a  tablet  commemorative  of 
the  Westminster  Assembly,  inscribed  : 


WESTMINSTER 
ASSEMBLY 

(St,  1643 
22d,  1649 


J 

The  Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines  was  cre- 
ated by  the  famous  Long  Parliament  of  England, 
and  met  in  the  chapel  of  King  Henry  the  Seventh, 
Westminster  Abbey,  July  1,  1643.  Afterward, 
when  the  weather  became  cold,  the  sessions  were 
held  in  the  Jerusalem  Chamber.  It  consisted  of 
thirty-tw^o  lay  assessors,  two  of  them  re^Dresenta- 
tives  of  Scotland,  and  one  hundred  and  forty-two 
divines,  four  of  them  Commissioners  from  Scot- 
land. They  were  of  all  shades  of  opinion  in 
matters  of  Church  government.  The  duty  im- 
posed upon  this  Assembly  appears  from  the  fol- 
lowing extract  from  the  ordinance  of  Parliament 
by  which  it  was  convoked :  "  Whereas  amongst 
the  infinite  blessings  of  Almighty  God  upon  this 
Nation,  none  is,  or  can  be,  more  dear  unto  us  than 


42  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

the  purity  of  our  religion  ;  and  for  that  as  yet 
many  things  remain  in  the  liturgy,  discipline,  and 
government  of  the  Church,  which  do  necessarily 
require  a  further  and  more  perfect  reformation 
than  yet  hath  been  attained :  And  whereas  it 
hath  been  declared  and  resolved  by  the  Lords  and 
Commons  assembled  in  Parliament,  that  the  pres- 
ent Church  government,  by  archbishops,  bishops, 
their  chancellors,  commissaries,  deans,  deans  and 
chapters,  archdeacons,  and  other  ecclesiastical  offi- 
cers, depending  upon  the  hierarchy,  is  evil,  and 
justly  offensive  and  burdensome  to  the  Kingdom, 
a  great  impediment  to  reformation  and  growth  of 
religion,  and  very  prejudicial  to  the  State  and 
government  of  this  Kingdom  ;  and  that  therefore 
they  are  resolved  that  the  same  shall  be  taken 
away,  and  that  such  a  government  shall  be  settled 
in  the  Church  as  may  be  most  agreeable  to  God's 
Holy  AVord,  and  most  apt  to  procure  and  preserve 
the  peace  of  the  Church  at-home,  and  nearer 
agreement  with  the  Church  of  Scotland  and  other 
Reformed  Churches  abroad :  And  for  the  better 
effecting  hereof,  and  for  the  vindicating  and  clear- 
ing of  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  of  England 
from  all  false  calumnies  and  aspersions,  it  is 
thought  fit  and  necessary  to  call  an  Assembly  of 
learned,  godly,  and  judicious  divines,  to  consult 
and  advise  of  such  matters  and  things  touching 
the  premises,  as  shall  be  proposed  unto  them  by 


WESTMINSTER  ASSEMBLY.  43 

both  or  either  of  the  Houses  of  Parliament,  and 
to  ffive  their  advice  and  counsel  therein  to  both 
or  either  of  the  said  Houses,  when,  and  as  often 
as,  they  shall  be  thereunto  required." 

The  sentence  in  the  above,  which  has  been  itali- 
cized, presents  what  may  be  considered  as  the 
main  object  of  the  AVestminster  Assembly,  viz., 
to  frame  such  a  system  of  Church  Government 
and  Public  Worship  as  might  unite  the  King- 
doms of  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland  in  re- 
ligious uniformity.  Nay,  it  looked  even  beyond 
this,  to  a  like  uniformity  among  all  the  Reformed 
Churches  of  Europe.  It  was  a  cherished  thouglit 
of  many  of  the  leading  spirits  of  the  Assembly, 
notably  of  that  great  and  good  man,  Alexander 
Henderson,  that  Protestant  Christendom  miglit 
be  led,  through  the  agency  of  the  Westminster 
Assembly,  to  form  a  substantial  Union  in  matters 
of  Church  government  and  worship.  It  was  a 
noble  conception,  which  seemed  at  times  to  be  on 
the  eve  of  consummation.  It  failed ;  but  the 
presence  of  such  a  sublime  and  truly  Christian 
idea  in  the  hearts  of  those  Assembled  Divines 
must  give  an  interest  and  dignity  to  their  charac- 
ters and  deliberations  which  no  detraction  of  ad- 
versaries can  belittle.  And  it  is  quite  certain  that 
their  conclusions,  as  embodied  in  the  "  West- 
minster Confession,"  expressed  the  convictions  of 
the  great  majority  of  the  most  learned  and  godly 


44  THE  TERCENTE2;ARY. 

men  of  that  age,  throughout  the  Protestant 
world. 

These  conclusions  were  substantially  accepted 
and  enacted  by  both  Houses  of  the  English  Par- 
liament, and  Presbyterianism  became  the  estab- 
lished form  of  Christianity.  The  dissolution  of 
the  Long  Parliament  by  Cromwell,  and  the  events 
subsequent  to  the  Restoration  of  Charles  IL, 
almost  entirely  overthrew  the  work  of  the  Assem- 
bly as  to  England.  But  Scotland  heartily  ac- 
cepted its  conclusions,  its  Kirk  and  Parliament 
ratified  its  Confession,  Discipline,  and  Catechisms, 
and  her  noble  children  have  cherished  and  upheld 
them  to  this  day  with  unabated  sincerity  and 
affection.  It  is  from  Scotland  rather  than  from 
England  that  these  honored  symbols  of  the  Gos- 
pel Faith  have  been  transmitted  to  our  American 
Church. 

The  following  decorations  in  the  Church  re- 
main to  be  noticed.  A  large  "  life  size "  bell 
constructed  of  natui'al  flowers,  hung  from  the 
centre  of  the  ceiling,  a  fitting  syml)ol  of  a  Jubi- 
lee. This  beautiful  design  was  an  offering  from 
the  First  Church  of  Mantua.  Around  the  gal- 
leries and  organ-loft  were  hung  festoons  of  ever- 
green, and  hanging  baskets  containing  plants  and 
flowers.  In  the  vestibule  of  the  church  were  these 
decorations.  Over  the  main  inside  door,  a  design 
of  *'  Welcome,"  drawn  from  the  message  to  the 


NATIONAL  COVENANT  OF  SCOTLAND.  45 

ancient  Church  of  Phihiclelphia,  as  recorded  in 
the  third   chapter  of    the  Revelation — an  open 
door,  out  of  which  issued  rays  of  light,  in  the 
centre  of  the  rays  a  key,  combining  the  form  of 
a  cross,  all  signifying  the  only  Source  of  Know- 
ledge, Faith  and  Opportunity,  viz. :  He  that  hath 
the  key  of  David.     Below,  on  a  scroll,  was  the 
name  "  Philadelphia,"  and  above,  the  text,  "  Be- 
hold I  have  set  before  thee  an  open  door."     On 
the  key  stone  of  the  arch  of  the  door  were  two 
hearts  bound  together,  symbolizing  the  place  of 
the  City  of  Brotherly  Love  in  the  Key  Stone 
State,  as  well  as  the  flict  that  Charity  is  the  Key 
Stone  of  the  Christian  Virtues.     On  the  north 
side  of  the  door  was  a  fac-simile  of  the  famous 
National  League  and  Covenant  of  Scotland,  with 
the  signatures  of  many  of  the  principal  original 
signers.     The    persecutions   of    Charles    I.   and 
Archbishop  Laud  in  their  endeavor  to  force  Epis- 
copacy and  liturgical  worship  upon  the  unwilling 
Presbyterians  of  Scotland,  finally  aroused  the  en- 
tire nation  to  resistance.     This  resistance  culmi- 
nated in  that  grand  act  of  Covenant  before  God, 
and  confederation  with  each  other,  which  is  known 
as  the  ''  National  Covenant."     It  was  adoptel  and 
signed  at  the  Gray  friars  Church,  Edinburgh,  Feb. 
28th,  1638.     The  meeting  at  which  this  was  done 
was  one  of  the  most  i-emarkable  of  which  History 
has  any  record.     When  the  vast  audience  within 


46  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

the  church,  composed  of  the  very  flower  of  the 
Scotch  nobility  and  gentry,  had  all  signed,  the 
document  was  removed  into  the  churchyard, 
spread  upon  a  level  grave-stone,  and  the  signa- 
tures of  the  multitude  invited.  The  scene  here 
was  even  more  impressive  than  within  the  church. 
The  emotions  of  the  j^eople  found  vent,  on  the 
part  of  some,  in  tears,  of  others  in  shouts  of  exulta- 
tion, but  among  all,  in  a  fervent,  solemn  uplook- 
ing  to  the  God  of  Covenants.  The  whole  of  the 
large  parchment  was  covered  with  names,  con- 
tracted into  less  and  less  space  as  the  face  of  the 
scroll  became  covered,  until  at  last  only  initials 
could  be  signed.  Some  wrote  after  their  names, 
^' till  death  ;^^  others  opening  a  vein,  subscribed 
with  their  blood.  The  movement  was  universal. 
The  entire  nation  took  the  Covenant.  Thus  was 
beo-un  that  revolution  in  Great  Britain  which  led 

o 

finally  to  the  Long  Parliament,  the  death  of 
Charles  L,  Oliver  Cromwell,  and  the  secured 
liberties  of  the  United  Kingdoms. 

On  the  south  side  was  a  large  printed  copy 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  made 
by  the  Presbyterian  citizens  of  Mecklenburg 
County,  N.  C,  May  31st,  1775,  thirteen  months 
before  that  made  by  the  Federal  Congress,  in 
Philadelphia,  July  4,  1776.  This  document, 
handsomely  printed  in  blue,  and  enclosed  in  a 
gilt  frame,  is  on  a  parchment  28  by  40  inches. 


MECKLENBURG  DECLARATION.  47 

It  contains,  beside  tlie  Declaration  itself,  fac-similes 
of  the  signatures  of  the  Committee  who  prepared 
it,  which  we  give  on  the  accompanying  pages,  and 
a  historical  note  from  Lossing's  Field  Book  of  the 
Revolution,  authenticating  the  now  established 
tact  which  has  conferred  such  honor  upon  the 
Presbyterians  of   North   Carolina.      The  juxta- 
position  of  this  bold  Declaration  with  the  fac- 
simile   of    the    Scotch    League    and    Covenant, 
showed  at  a  glance  that  the  influence  which  Pres- 
byterian principles  had  in  invoking,  stimulating, 
and  sustaining  in  the  Old  World  the  spirit  of 
Civil  Liberty,  wrought  with  like  results  in  the 
New  World.      The  document,  as  might  be  ex- 
pected in  the  city  where  stands  the  old  Independ- 
ence Hall,  attracted  great  attention,  and  provoked 
animated  remark.'^ 

On  the  south  side  of  the  main  outer  door  was 
a  large  photograph  of  the  old  Seventh  Church, 
erected  A.  D.  1806,  which  stood  in  Panstead 
court,  between  Fourth  and  Fifth  streets,  above 
Chestnut.  In  this  building  the  sessions  of  the 
General  Assembly  were  regularly  held,  whence  it 
was  called  the  Assembly  Church,  or  Tabernacle. 

*  A  few  additional  copies  of  this  Mecklenburg  Declaration 
were  printed,  and  may  be  had  on  application  to  the  writer,  by 
those  who  may  wish  to  frame  them  for  our  Seminaries,  Colleges, 
public  and  private  libraries  and  halls.  A  trifling  expense  for 
frames  might  furnish  all  our  Church  Institutions,  should  some 
liberal  friend  be  found  to  undertake  the  matter. 


o 

P 

gf 

H    g 
O 


Ph 


'^      r-i 


Q 
Q 

fa 

o 
o 

I— I 

H 
<! 

P5 

o 


I 

O 

fa 


50  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

Here  also  occurred  the  famous  separation  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  into  the  Old  and  New  School 
parties.  The  church  was  torn  down  without  any 
picture  of  it  having  been  preserved.  But  a  com- 
plete restoration  of  the  building  was  made  from 
an  engineer's  survey  and  architect's  description, 
lately  discovered  among  some  old  paj^ers,  from 
which  this  picture  was  taken.  OjDposite  this  was 
a  photograph  of  the  Third  Church,  Pittsburg,  in 
which  the  Re-Union  of  the  Old  and  New  School 
Branches  was  consummated. 

The  evening  exercises  of  the  celebration  were 
held  in  the  new  Presbyterian  Publication  House, 
at  No.  1334  Chestnut  street.  The  opening  of 
this  noble  edifice  was  greeted  by  the  public  with 
lively  interest.  Throngs  of  visitors  poured 
through  the  House  during  the  day,  and  all  ex- 
pressed warm  admiration  of  the  completeness  and 
commodiousness  of  all  its  appointments.  A  com- 
mittee of  ladies  had  decorated  the  salesroom,  halls 
and  offices  with  statuary,  evergreens  and  flowers, 
giving  a  gala  air  to  the  whole  of  the  beautiful 
building. 

In  the  evening  the  House  was  literally 
"jammed."  The  Assembly  Room  was  the  centre 
of  attraction,  and  was  closely  packed  with  ladies 
and  gentlemen,  many  of  whom  were  obliged  to 
stand  from  seven  to  ten  o'clock  listening  to  the 
addresses  and  the  music.     Large  numbers  being 


EVENING  MEETING, 


51 


■^-^-nir 


'w^fww^7^^yT\''f^T]  f^-r'r\P  'f^  -f^  fM^ 


f^i^M^ 


at,-^o^--\G>     .G»   -  G>     ..  J.      a^     o^-^^ej      a 


%ta^\4^'ii«- •*»*..  ..^  . 


Presbyterian  Pubi^icatiox   IIousk,  Philadki.phia. 


52  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

unable  to  get  in,  a  second  meeting  was  organized 
in  the  Eooms  of  the  Board  of  Education. 

The  services  in  the  Assembly  Room  were  full 
of  interest.  The  Rev.  Alexander  Reed,  D.D., 
President  of  the  Board  of  Publication,  jDresided. 
After  an  opening  piece  of  music  from  the  choir, 
which  had  kindly  volunteered  its  services,  the 
opening  address  was  made  by  the  Rev.  W.  E. 
Schenck,  D.D.,  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the 
Board  of  Publication,  who  extended  a  warm  wel- 
come to  the  audience  and  2;ave  some  account  of 
the  House,  its  cost,  and  the  uses  to  which  its 
several  jDarts  were  to  be  apj)lied.  The  Rev. 
Herrick  Johnson,  D.D.,  followed,  speaking  on  be- 
half of  the  Board  of  Education,  wdiich  was  here 
generously  accommodated  by  the  Board  of  Publi- 
cation with  fine  apartments,  without  charge  for 
rent,  fuel  or  light.  The  Rev.  Cyrus  Dickson, 
D.D.,  of  Xew  York,  one  of  the  Corresponding 
Secretaries  of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions, 
tendered  his  con2;ratulations  on  behalf  of  the 
Presbyterians  of  New  York,  and  warmly  alluded 
to  what  his  eyes  had  seen  of  the  usefulness  of  the 
colporteurs  and  publications  of  the  Board  of  Pub- 
lication, as  diffused  in  the  distant  Territories  and 
on  the  Pacific  coast  of  the  United  States.  The  Rev. 
Henry  M.  Field,  D.D.,  of  New  York,  Editor  of 
the  "  New  York  Evangelist,"  next  addressed  the 
audience,  eloquently  alluding,  among  other  sub- 


EVENING   MEETING.  53 

jects,  to  the  painful  absence  on  this  occasion  of  the 
"  lost  tribes "  of  our  I*resbyterian  Israel — the 
southei"n  portion  of  our  Churcli.  The  Rev.  John 
Leyburn,  D.D.,  of  Baltimore,  who  was  over  twenty 
years  ago  the  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the 
Board  of  Publication,  responded  kindly  to  the  al- 
hision  of  Dr.  Field  in  regard  to  the  soutliern 
brethren,  and  entertained  the  audience  with  hu- 
morous reminiscences  of  the  Board  in  its  early 
days.  Further  brief  remarks  were  made  by  the 
Kev.  John  W.  Dulles,  D.D.,  Editorial  Secretary 
of  the  Board,  the  Bev.  James  McCosh,  D.D., 
LL.D.,  President  of  Princeton  College,  and  the 
Bev.  Henry  E.  Niles,  of  York,  Pa.  These  ad- 
dresses were  interspersed  w^ith  delightful  music 
from  the  volunteer  choir.  At  the  close,  thanks 
were  voted  to  the  committee  of  ladies  who  had 
arranged  the  decorations — Mrs.  S.  C.  Perkins, 
Mrs.  Strickland  Kneass,  Miss  Mary  Sutherland 
and  Mrs.  S.  B.  Stitt ;  and  the  meeting  adjourned 
after  a  season  of  thorough  enjoyment. 

At  the  meeting  extemporized  by  those  who 
could  not  enter  the  Assembly-Boom,  Avhich  was 
held  in  the  rooms  of  the  Board  of  Education,  the 
Rev.  Thomas  Murphy,  D.D.,  presided.  Short  ad- 
dresses, but  earnest,  eloquent  and  brimfuU  of 
the  happy  spirit  that  pervaded  the  multitude  that 
thronged  all  parts  of  the  House,  were  made  by 
Dr.  George  Hayes,  President  of  Washington  and 

5* 


54  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

Jefferson  College,  Dr.  Wm.  O.  Johnstone,  Dr. 
Alfred  Nevin,  and  Ex-Governor  Pollock. 

Thus  ended  the  formal  celebration  of  the  Ter- 
centennial of  the  great  events  in  the  history  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church,  which  are  naturally 
grouped  about  the  life  and  death  of  John  Knox, 
the  sufferings  of  the  Huguenots,  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  Presbytery  in  England.  Perhaps  no 
event  ever  so  fully  aroused  and  united  the  Pres- 
byterians of  Philadelphia.  And  tlie  interest  was 
carried  into  the  general  community  by  the  ex- 
cellent re])0]'ts  which  appeared  in  leading  news- 
papers of  the  city,  which  were  ably  represented  in 
the  various  sessions  of  the  meetins;.  That  the 
beneficial  influences  of  the  Tercentennial  have 
not  yet  ceased  to  be  felt  is  manifest  in  the  deep- 
ened and  deepening  interest  among  our  people  in 
that  which  relates  to  their  Church  History.  Let 
us  see  to  it  that  these  influences  are  perpetuated ! 
There  is  opened  to  us  a  vein  of  truth,  the  solid  facts 
of  history,  in  which  too  few  ministers  have  thought 
it  worth  while  to  mine  for  the  benefit  of  the  people. 
But  it  has  been  shown  beyond  a  question  that  the 
hearts  and  minds  of  the  people  will  respond  to  well 
directed  efforts  to  enlist  their  interest  in  the  mighty 
facts  of  God's  Providence,  as  written  in  the  His- 
tory of  His  Saints.  Let  us  be  wise  to  enter  again 
into  this  field,  which  hitherto  we  have  trodden  only 
for  our  own  entertainment  and  instruction,  and 


HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 


65 


explore  it  with  minds  intent  upon  culling  there- 
from such  materials  as  we  may  arrange  into  such 
shape  and  comeliness  as  shall  win  the  people  to 
receive  them  at  our  hands.  Providence  too  is  to 
he  studied.  There  is  in  that  also  a  divine  reve- 
lation for  us.  As  leading  to,  and  illustrating 
the  Revelation  of  the  Word,  the  teacher  of  God's 
ways  and  truths  will  find  it  well  repaying  his 
faithful  study.  If  for  nothing  else,  to  set  in  play 
some  force  that  shall  counteract  the  pernicious 
influence  of  the  frivolous  literature  in  which  so 
many  of  our  youth  delight — the  whipped-up- 
froth  of  venial  authors,  whose  productions  are 
dealt  out  at  wholesale  by  the  literary  confection- 
monsiers,  wliose  wares  are  found  even  in  our 
Sunday-school  libraries. 

The  writer  ventures  to  close  this  account, 
with  a  word,  calling  attention  to  an  agency 
whose  aim  is  in  the  direct  line  of  the  benefits 
issuing  from  the  Tercentennial — The  Pres- 
byterian Historical  Society.  A  large  collec- 
tion of  valuable  books,  manuscripts  and  relics, 
gathered  together  by  the  indefatigable  Librarian 
and  Treasurer,  Samuel  Agnew,  Esq., — lies  stored 
away  in  bales  and  boxes,  and  well-nigh  inaccessi- 
ble, for  lack  of  a  suitable  edifice  in  which  the 
collection  may  be  displayed,  preserved  and  made 
available  to  the  student  of  Presbyterian  History. 
The  period  is  ripe  for  a  well -concerted  effort  tc 


66  THE   TERCENTENARY. 

place  this  valuable  Society  and  its  treasures  in  safe 
and  comfortable  quarters. 

The  following  description  of  the  new  Publica- 
tion House,  whose  opening  was  such  an  important 
feature  in  the  Tercentennial,  is  appended : 

The  "Presbyterian  Board  of  Publication"  of 
the  late  Old-school  Branch  of  the  Church,  went 
into  operation  in  tlie  year  1838.  Its  first  place 
of  business  was  on  Sansom  Street,  Philadel]3hia, 
in  a  rented  room.  After  a  few  years  it  purchased 
a  house  on  Chestnut  Street  above  Eighth  Street. 
This  building  was  not  long  after  destroyed  by 
fire,  when  the  house  recently  occupied  at  No.  821 
Chestnut  Street  was  erected  on  the  same  site,  and 
the  business  of  the  Board  was  continued  therein 
until  after  the  Be-union,  when  it  was  removed 
to  this  place.  The  "  Presbyterian  Publication 
Committee"  of  the  other  Branch  was  organized 
fourteen  years  later,  in  1852,  and  was  located  not 
long  afterward  in  the  building  which  then  occu- 
pied the  lot  on  which  this  new  house  now  stands. 

The  first  General  Assembly  of  the  happily  re- 
united Church,  which  met  in  this  city  in  1870, 
united  the  Board  and  the  Committee,  and  recom- 
mended the  organized  Board  of  Publication,  ''  as 
soon  as  practicable,  to  sell  its  house  and  lot.  No. 
821  Chestnut  Street,  and  to  provide  a  larger 
house,  adequate  to  its  now  extended  operations, 


THE  PUBLICATION  HOUSE.  57 

and  to  the  prospective  growth  of  its  business,  on 
the  premises  Nos.  1334  and  1336  Chestnut  Street, 
or  in  that  vicinity."  This  recommendation  has 
now  been  carried  out,  and  the  new  house,  now 
completed,  is  to-day  for  the  first  time  fully  opened 
for  the  uses  for  which  it  was  erected. 

This  new  Presbyterian  Publication  House  oc- 
cupies two  lots,  Nos.  1334  and  1336  Chestnut 
Street,  above  Thirteenth  Street,  and  directly  op- 
posite the  United  States  Mint,  one  of  the  most 
eligible  business  localities  in  the  city  of  Philadel- 
phia. It  has  a  front  of  forty-four  feet  on  Chest- 
nut Street,  and  runs  back  two  hundred  and  thirty- 
five  feet  to  Sansom  Street.  It  is  four  stories  high, 
besides  the  basement.  Its  Chestnut  Street  front  is 
built  of  granite,  brought  from  quarries  in  New 
Hampshire,  is  adorned  with  columns  of  colored 
and  polished  granite  from  Aberdeen,  in  Scotland, 
and  is  greatly  admired  for  its  architectural  beauty. 
The  architect  who  planned  and  has  throughout 
supervised  the  erection  of  the  structure,  is  John 
McArthur,  Jr.,  Esq.  Mr.  Lewis  Havens  was  the 
contractor  and  builder. 

The  basement  is  fire-proof  throughout,  and  will 
be  used  mainly  for  the  storage  of  stereotype  plates 
and  printed  sheets.  The  entire  first  fioor  is  occu- 
pied by  the  bookstore ;  the  front  by  the  retail, 
and  the  rear  end  by  the  wholesale  department. 
In  the  second  story,  at  the  Sansom  Street  end,  is 


58  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

a  large,  handsome  and  well-lighted  Assembly 
Room,  around  the  walls  of  which  is  arranged  the 
valuable  Library  of  the  Board  of  Publication, 
with  a  number  of  elegant  portraits  which  have 
been  presented  as  gifts  to  the  Board  by  generous 
friends.  Among  these  are  conspicuous  the  like- 
nesses of  Albert  Barnes,  Thomas  Brainerd,  D.  D., 
William  W.  Phillips,  D.  D.,  George  W.  Mus- 
grave,  D.  D.,  Thomas  H.  Skinner,  Sr.,  D.  D., 
John  M.  Mason,  D.  D.,  George  Junkin,  D.  D., 
and  the  late  Matthias  W.  Baldwin,  Esq.  This 
commodious  and  beautiful  room  is  used  for  the 
meetings  of  the  Board  of  Publication,  of  the 
Ministerial  Association,  the  Presbyteries  of  Phila- 
delphia, and  a  variety  of  other  gatherings  con- 
nected with  the  work  of  our  denomination.  On 
the  same  floor  is  a  Committee  Room,  for  smaller 
meetings ;  a  Travelers'  Boom,  with  toilet  conve- 
niences for  the  use  of  clergymen  and  others 
transiently  visiting  the  city ;  and  the  spacious 
and  well-ventilated  oflices  of  the  Board  of  Pub- 
lication, Board  of  Education,  and  the  Ministerial 
Belief  Fund.  The  two  last  named,  which  are  the 
only  others  of  the  General  Assembly's  benevolent 
schemes  now  located  in  Philadelj^hia,  have  been 
invited  by  the  Board  of  Publication  to  occupy 
apartments  on  this  floor  without  charge  for  rent, 
fuel  or  light.  The  third  story,  except  one  large 
front  room,  which  is  rented  out,  and  one  other 


THE  PUBLICATION  HOUSE.  59 

room  used  as  the  office  of  the  Woman's  Foreign 
Missionary  Society  of  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
is  used  for  the  storage  of  merchandise  connected 
with  the  operations  of  the  bookstore.  The  whole 
of  the  fourth  story  is  rented  to  a  number  of 
tenants. 

The  cost  of  the  House  will  be  about  $130,000, 
exclusive  of  fixtures  or  furniture.  The  Building 
Committee,  consisting  of  Messrs.  William  E.  Ten- 
brook,  Chairman,  John  D.  McCord,  Gustavus  S. 
Benson,  Samuel  C.  Perkins,  George  Junkin, 
Morris  Patterson,  John  W.  Dulles,  D.D.,  and 
William  E.  Schenck,  D.D.,  under  whose  constant 
and  most  careful  supervision  the  edifice  has  been 
erected,  are  entitled  to  the  thanks  of  the  whole 
Church  for  the  labor  they  have  expended,  and 
for  the  beautiful,  economical  and  commodious 
erection  those  labors  have  secured.  This  new 
Presbyterian  Publication  House  is  already  great- 
ly subserving  not  only  the  particular  interests  of 
the  beneficent  and  prosperous  Board  which  has 
erected  it,  but  all  those  of  the  great  and  growing 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the  city  and  region  in 
which  it  is  located,  and  will  furnish  agreeable 
headquarters  and  a  denominational  home  to  all 
Presbyterians  who  may  either  reside  in  or  occa- 
sionally visit  Philadelphia. 


JOHN     KNOX. 


AN    ORATION 


BY    THE 


Rev.  SAMUEL  J.  WILSON,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

PROFESSOR    OF    BIBLICAL    AND    ECCLESIASTICAL    HISTORY    IN    THE    WKSTEIIN 
THKOLOGICAL    SEMINARY,    ALLEGHENY,    PA, 


JOHN  KNOX. 


A  T  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century 
-^  Scotland  was  wrapped  in  the  densest  gloom 
of  intellectual  and  moral  darkness.  Feudalism, 
ignorance,  superstition,  licentiousness  and  tyranny 
— the  worst  elements  of  the  Middle  Ages — held 
brutal  sway  throughout  her  borders.  The  bish- 
ops and  abbots,  with  half  of  the  wealth  of  the 
I'calm  in  their  coffers,  outranking  princes  and 
nobles  both  in  dignity  and  power,  and  setting  at 
defiance  alike  the  laws  of  God  and  man,  outraged 
every  principle  of  virtue  and  every  dictate  of 
decency.  Priests  and  friars,  bestial  in  their 
stolid  sensualness,  filled  the  land  like  the  frogs 
of  Egypt.  There  were  friars  white  and  friars 
black  and  friars  gray — friars  of  every  hue  and 
habit  and  description,  and  friars  everywhere. 

Monasteries  and  nunneries  were  counted  by  the 
hundred,  and  each  several  one  of  them  was  a 
leprous  plague  spot.  The  investigation  into  the 
condition  of  monasteries  in  England  which  was 
ordered  by  Henry  VIII.  disclosed  a  corruption 


66  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

as  festering  and  loathsome  as  that  upon  which 
fire  and  brimstone  were  rained  in  Sodom.  The 
state  of  morals  in  the  Scottish  monasteries  was,  if 
possible,  worse. 

The  people  had  these  bishops,  abbots,  priests 
and  friars  for  their  teachers,  leaders  and  exam- 
ples in  holy  living.  *'  The  priest's  lips  no  longer 
kept  knowledge ;"  and  when  immortal  souls 
"sought  the  law  at  his  mouth,"  they  were  tanta- 
lized with  dead  forms  in  a  dead  language,  which 
were  as  destitute  of  the  spirit  and  grace  of  the 
gospel  as  a  mummy  of  the  pyramids,  wrapped  in 
cere-cloth,  is  destitute  of  warm,  j)ulsing  blood 
and  stirring  passions.  The  Bible  was  almost  as 
unknoAvn  as  one  of  the  lost  Sibylline  books.  The 
pulpit  was  obsolete.  Instead  of  the  sermon  were 
substituted  gossip,  scandal,  ribald  jest  and  ob- 
scene comedy.  By  means  of  excommunication, 
anathema  and  interdict — the  most  terrific  eccle- 
siastical machinery  ever  invented — the  clergy 
tyrannized  relentlessly  over  the  souls  and  bodies 
of  men.  Priests  ground  the  faces  of  the  poor  as 
systematically  and  as  sedulously  as  though  they 
had  been  called  of  God  and  ordained  of  men  for 
this  specific  service.  The  Church,  which  should 
have  been  the  friend  and  helper  and  teacher  and 
lifter-uj)  of  the  people — which  should  have  been 
quick  to  discern  their  wants  and  swift  to  avenge 
their  wrongs— usC'l  all  its  power  to  keep  them  in 


JOHN  KNOX.  67 

ignorance,  to  foster  their  superstitions  and  to  add 
to  the  bitterness  of  their  burdens. 

This  apostate  Church,  winking  at  every  species 
of  vice,  and  tolerant  of  all  forms  of  iniquity, 
'*  breathed  out  tlireatenings  and  slaughter" 
against  all  who  ventured  to  question  her  au- 
thority or  dared  to  seek  for  light  and  truth. 
For  all  such  she  had  the  ready  argument  of 
tyrants,  fiy^e  and  swoi^d.  Men  w^ere  burned  at 
the  stake  for  having  the  New  Testament  in  a 
language  in  which  they  could  read  and  luider- 
stand  it.  Yet  this  vast  despotism,  with  all  its 
elaborate  machinery  of  oppression,  was  impotent 
to  arrest  the  progress  of  the  truth.  It  could  burn 
men  with  balls  of  brass  in  their  mouths  to  keep 
them  from  ])reaching  the  gospel  in  the  flames, 
but  it  could  not  destroy  or  paralyze  the  truth  for 
which  these  men  died. 

But  the  day  of  Scotland's  redemption  was 
drawing  nigh.  The  echo  of  the  voices  of  Wick- 
liff  and  Huss  sounded  faintly  along  her  shores. 
By  and  by  she  caught  glimpses  of  the  light 
which  had  been  kindled  in  Germany,  Switzer- 
land and  France. 

A  youth  of  twenty,  with  the  blood  of  earls 
and  dukes  in  his  veins,  invested  with  a  high 
ecclesiastical  dignity  from  his  childhood  and  w^ith 
a  long  and  brilliant  line  of  j^romotion  open  be- 
fore him,  began  to  feel  the  stirrings  of  the  new 


68  THE   TERCENTENARY. 

spirit  that  was  abroad  among  the  nations,  went  to 
Germany,  sat  at  the  feet  of  Luther  and  Melanch- 
thon  at  Wittenberg,  and  caught  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  eloquent  converted  Franciscan  monk, 
Francis  Lambert,  at  Marburg,  and  returned  to 
Scotland  all  aflame  with  zeal  to  preach  the  gos- 
pel. One  afternoon  a  fire  was  prepared  in  front 
of  the  old  college  in  St.  Andrews,  and  this  young 
man — only  three-and-twenty  years  old — died  at 
the  stake  as  only  one  of  God's  heroes  can  die, 
and  then  history  wrote,  in  ineffaceable  characters, 
the  name  of  the  proto-martyr  of  the  Scottish 
Keformation  — Patrick  Hamilton, 

As  had  been  predicted,  "  the  reik  of  Patrick 
Hamilton  infected  as  many  as  it  blew  upon." 
From  his  ashes  sprung  men  armed  with  the  pan- 
oply of  the  gospel.  The  hierarchy  could  burn 
men,  but  these  very  burnings  kindled  a  light 
which  could  not  be  put  out.  A  learned  and  elo- 
quent evangelist  arose  in  the  person  of  George 
Wishart.  When  he  preached,  crowds  hung  upon 
his  lips,  spellbound,  by  the  hour.  If  churches 
were  shut  against  him,  he  preached  in  the  streets, 
on  dikes  or  from  city  gates.  His  voice  rang  like 
a  trumpet  through  Scotland.  It  was  one  of  the 
few  truly  brave  and  grand  voices  that  have  been 
heard  in  this  world,  but  it  was  soon  quenched  in 
fire.  On  the  gentle  slope  in  front  of  the  castle 
of  St.  Andrews,  the   sea  sounding  his   requiem. 


JOHN  KNOX.  69 

George  Wishart  gloriously  sealed  his  testimony 
with  his  blood.  His  persecutors,  fearing  that  elo- 
quent, clarion  voice  even  in  the  flames,  stopped 
his  utterance  by  tightening  a  cord  around  his 
neck.  Through  the  tapestried  window  of  the 
castle,  reclining  on  luxurious  cushions,  Cardinal 
Beaton  witnessed  the  martyrdom,  glutting  his 
lecherous  eyes  with  the  agonies  of  this  illustrious 
witness  of  the  truth. 

The  Hierarchy,  wielding  the  tremendous  power 
which  had  been  won  for  it  by  Hildebrand  and 
Innocent  III.,  bearing  two  swords,  the  temporal 
as  well  as  the  spiritual,  insolently  lording  it  over 
prince,  priests  and  j)6opl6,  and  setting  its  face 
like  a  flint  against  all  enlightenment  of  the  in- 
tellect or  soul,  exercised  a  most  cruel  and  heart- 
less despotism.  Its  spirit  was  devilish.  So  long 
as  its  magnates  could  roll  in  wealth,  so  long  as 
they  could  pamper  their  lazy  bodies  on  the  hard 
earnings  of  the  poor,  so  long  as  without  restraint 
or  let  or  hindrance  they  could  indulge  their 
brutal  lusts  and  passions,  they  were  content ;  but 
rather  than  lose  an  iota  of  their  ill-gotten  and 
ill-used  power,  rather  than  have  the  people  read 
the  word  of  God  for  themselves,  they  would  see 
Scotland  lighted  from  one  end  to  the  other  with 
blazing  stakes  and  fagots.  They  had  the  power 
and  they  used  it  savagely.  Their  inquisition  for 
those  who  dared  to  preach  Christ  was  as  keen 


70  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

and  unerring  as  the  scent  of  the  bloodhound. 
Every  voice  that  was  raised  in  behalf  of  truth 
and  righteousness  was  stifled  in  fire.  Every 
kindling  of  light  was  trodden  out  in  blood.  To 
have  the  love  of  Christ  in  the  heart,  and  to 
dare  proclaim  it,  was  swift  and  sure  destruction. 

Whence,  then,  can  deliverance  come  ?  Where 
can  be  found  a  man  strong  enough  and  brave 
enough  to  grapple  with  this  gigantic  despotism, 
whose  mighty  power  has  been  the  steady  growth 
of  ages  ?  Has  God  in  his  quiver  one  such  arrow  ? 
Has  he,  in  all  his  kingdom,  one  such  champion 
hero? 

A  tutor  in  the  family  of  Douglass  of  Lang- 
niddrie,  who  had  been  a  teacher  of  philosophy 
at  St.  Andrews,  until,  becoming  disgusted  with 
the  jargon  of  scholasticism  and  the  corruptions 
of  papacy,  he  abandoned  the  one  and  renounced 
the  other,  became  the  devoted  follower  and 
chivalrous  sword-bearer  of  George  Wishart. 
When  Wishart  was  arrested,  he  advised  the  tutor 
to  return  to  "  his  bairns,"  as  he  could  no  longer 
be  of  any  service  to  him.  Very  reluctantly,  and 
only  after  earnest  remonstrances,  the  tutor  fol- 
lowed this  advice.  Besides  teaching  the  classics, 
he  exercised  his  pupils  daily  in  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures and  indoctrinated  them  theologically  by 
catechetical  instruction,  and  at  stated  intervals 
these  catechisings  were  public. 


JOHN  KNOX.  71 

The  times  were  now  fraught  with  momentous 
issues,  and  events  big  with  the  destinies  of  peo- 
ples crowded  thick  upon  each  other.  A  few 
months  only  after  the  day  upon  whicli  Cardinal 
Beaton,  lounging  on  his  velvet  cushions,  had 
witnessed  from  his  window  in  the  castle,  with 
undisguised  satisfaction,  the  burning  of  Wishart, 
his  own  lifeless  body,  covered  with  the  gaping 
wounds  of  assassins'  daggers,  was  hung  as  a  public 
spectacle  from  that  identical  window. 

The  tutor  of  Douglass,  together  with  his  pupils, 
took  refuge  in  the  castle  of  St.  Andrews,  which 
was  then  held  by  the  enemies  of  the  late  cardi- 
nal. Here  he  was  soon  recognized  as  one  who  was 
eminently  fitted  to  become  the  teacher  and  leader 
of  men  and  of  princes,  rather  than  to  be  the 
tutor  of  boys.  When  the  judgment  of  his  friends 
in  this  regard  was  solemnly  announced  to  him, 
and  he  was  adjured  to  undertake  the  work  of  the 
ministry,  he  burst  into  a  flood  of  tears,  shut  him- 
self in  his  chamber,  and  for  days  was  overwhelmed 
with  the  profoundest  grief.  Through  the  impor- 
tunity of  friends,  and  partly  through  the  im- 
pertinence of  a  certain  champion  of  the  papacy, 
he  was  at  length  constrained  to  enter  the  pulpit 
in  defence  of  the  truth.  It  was  a  memorable  day 
in  Scottish  history  when  he  first  preached  in  the 
parish  church  at  St.  Andrews.  Brave  men  held 
their  breath  as  they  listened  to  his   bold   and 


72  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

sweeping  utterances.  Such  preacliing  had  not 
been  heard  in  Scotland  for  ages.  "Others  hewed 
the  branches  of  the  papistry,  but  he  struck  at 
the  root."  Some  rejoiced  and  took  courage,  some 
doubted,  some  hoped,  some  feared,  many  were 
furious,  but  all  felt  that  there  was  a  new  power 
in  the  world,  while  a  few  chosen  spirits  recognized 
John  Knox  as  the  ordained  cliampion  and  leader 
of  the  revolution  then  beginning  in  Seotland. 

By  the  aid  of  French  forces  the  castle  of 
St.  Andrews  was  reduced,  Knox  was  taken 
prisoner,  was  loaded  with  chains  and  confined 
as  a  galley-slave.  Through  hardship,  ex- 
posure and  sickness  his  body  was  reduced  to 
a  skeleton,  but  his  spirit  remained  invincible. 
Once  the  galley  on  which  he  was  confined 
came  in  sight  of  St.  Andrews,  and  the  spires  of 
the  city  being  pointed  out  to  him,  he  was  asked  if 
he  knew  the  place.  With  kindling  eye  he  re- 
plied :  "  Yes,  I  know  it  well,  for  I  see  the  steeple 
of  that  place  where  God  first  opened  my  mouth 
in  public  to  his  glory,  and  I  am  fully  persuaded, 
how  weak  soever  I  now  appear,  that  I  shall  not 
depart  this  life  till  that  my  tongue  shall  glorify 
his  godly  name  in  the  same  place."  We  admire 
the  indomitable  spirit  of  Julius  Caesar,  who 
threatened  to  their  faces  to  crucify  the  pirates 
who  held  him  in  their  power  as  a  prisoner ;  but 
these  words  of  Knox,  in  the  condition  in  which 


JOHN  KNOX.  73 

he  then  was,  breathe  a  grander  courage  than  that 
of  Julius  Caesar, 

Released  from  the  galleys,  he  spent  five  years 
in  England  as  an  asylum  from  persecution,  and 
as  a  preacher  in  Berwick  and  New  Castle  he  was 
''  mighty  in  word ;"  as  cha])lain  to  Edward  VI, 
he  "  stood  before  kings ;"  as  a  court  preacher  he 
was  as  plain  and  fearless  and  searching  as  Lati- 
mer ;  as  a  theologian  he  was  consulted  in  re«:ard 
to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  and  the  Articles 
of  Keligion ;  as  a  divine  a  brilliant  line  of  pro- 
motion was  open  before  him  in  the  Anglican 
Church.  Edward  VI.  proffered  him  a  bishopric, 
and  any  dignity  in  the  English  Church  was  within 
his  easy  reach  ;  but  he  could  accept  none  of  these 
without  the  sacrifice  of  honest  and  well-crrounded 
convictions,  and  he  therefore  relinquished  them 
all  "  for  conscience'  sake,"  and  remained  loyally 
and  heroically  true  to  these  convictions  in  spite 
of  gold  and  glory.  He  remained  poor  and  un- 
titled ;  but  is  there  a  title  on  earth  that  would  add 
any  dignity  to  the  simple  name  John  Knox  ? 

When  that  "idolatrous  Jezebel,  mischievous 
Mary  of  the  Spaniard's  blood,"  came  to  the 
throne,  Knox  was  compelled  to  flee  from  England. 
He  went  first  to  France,  thence  to  Switzerland 
and  thence  to  Germany.  His  exile  on  the  Conti- 
nent forms  an  important  segment  of  his  life,  for 
it  threw  him  into  contact  with  other  Reformers 

7 


74  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

from  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  afforded  him 
time  for  study  and  mature  reflection.  In  the 
matter  of  the  church  at  Frankfort,  he  had  an  op- 
portunity of  testifying  publicly  against  the  false 
and  pernicious  principles  upon  which  the  English 
Reformation  was  conducted,  and,  in  consequence, 
he  again  proudly  accepted  exile  rather  than  sac- 
rifice or  compromise  a  jot  or  tittle  of  his  honest  con- 
victions. But  the  most  important  feature  of  this 
part  of  his  life  was  his  intercourse  with  John  Cal- 
vin at  Geneva.  These  two  great  men,  whose  influ- 
ence has  struck  deeper  into  the  currents  of  history 
than  any  other  two  men  then  living,  entertained 
the  most  ardent  esteem  and  friendship  for  eacli 
other.  Although  Knox  at  this  time  was  fifty 
years  old,  he  pursued  his  studies  at  Geneva  as  dili- 
gently and  enthusiastically  as  the  merest  tyro. 
This  seems  to  have  been  the  sunniest  part  of  his 
stormy  life.  He  was  engaged  in  congenial  studies 
and  he  was  surrounded  with  congenial  compan- 
ions, yet  he  relinquished  these  studies  and  the  so- 
ciety of  congenial  spirits  in  Switzerland,  and  re- 
turned to  Scotland  just  so  soon  as  he  felt  that  he 
could  be  of  service  there. 

Back  once  more  in  his  dear  native  land,  he 
preached  day  and  night,  almost  incessantly,  and 
the  word  grew  mightily.  No  part  of  his  life  was 
more  fruitful  of  great  results  than  this  brief  so- 
journ in  Scotland  at  this  time.     His  clear  vision 


JOHN  KNOX.  75 

pierced  through  all  disguises,  shams  and  compro- 
mises. His  sharp,  incisive  judgment  penetrated 
to  the  very  core  of  the  issue.  To  him  all  compli- 
ance with  papal  ceremonies  was  treason  to  the 
cause  of  truth.  With  a  steady  hand,  which  never 
missed  its  aim,  he  at  one  hlow  cut  the  last  tie 
that  bound  the  hesitating  lleformers  to  the  papacy. 
Thus  early  in  the  struggle  he  settled,  at  once  and 
for  ever,  the  policy  of  the  Eeformation  in  Scotland. 
There  were  to  be  no  compromises,  no  temporizing 
expediences.  The  work  was  to  be  genuine  and 
thorough.  At  this  time,  Avhen  almost  totally  hid- 
den from  the  world  and  unknown  to  it,  he  laid 
deep  and  immovable  the  foundations  of  the  Scot- 
tish Eeformation.  His  glowing  earnestness  fused 
the  floating,  incoherent  elements  of  Reform  into 
consistency,  symmetry  and  strength.  A  master- 
hand  was  on  the  helm,  and  the  noble  ship,  respond- 
ing to  his  touch,  assumed  that  course  which  she 
held  triumphantly  to  the  end.  All  ecclesiastical 
history  since  that  day  is  a  vindication  of  Knox's 
policy  of  the  Eeformation.     It  is  the  only  true 

policy. 

Called  to  the  pastorate  of  the  English  church 
in  Geneva  in  155(3,  Knox  returned  to  Switzer- 
land, where  he  remained  for  two  years.  While 
there  his  time  was  occupied  in  preaching,  in  pas- 
toral labor,  in  working  upon  the  Geneva  Bible, 


76  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

and  in  uttering  his  terrible ''  Blast  of  the  Trum[)et 
ao-ainst  the  Monstrous  Resiiment  of  Women." 

In  the  mean  time  the  queen  regent  of  Scotland, 
*'  crafty,  dissimulate  and  false,"  having  thrown 
off  her  cunningly  woven  disguises,  took  the 
first  step  toward  the  total  extirpation  of  the  Re- 
formation in  Scotland  by  summoning  the  Prot- 
estant preachers  to  stand  their  trials  at  Stirling. 
The  queen  regent,  Hamilton,  archbishop  of  St. 
Andrews,  and  Beaton,  archbishop  of  Glasgow, 
notwithstanding  bitter  and  rankling  jealousies 
among  themselves,  had  joined  hands  for  the  pur- 
pose of  crushing  out  Protestantism  utterly.  The 
plans  were  all  matured.  The  plot  was  ripe.  The 
mine  was  about  to  be  sprung.  At  this  supreme 
crisis  the  man  whom  God  had  been  preparing, 
by  a  long  and  severe  discipline,  to  be  one  of  his 
ordained  instruments  in  great  achievements,  steps 
suddenly  upon  the  scene.  Elijah  was  kept  hidden 
in  obscurity  until  he  was  to  confront  Ahab. 
Moses  had  a  forty  years'  discipline  in  the  wilder- 
ness, and  came  from  the  deserts  of  Midian  to 
stand  before  Pharaoh.  Closes  and  Elijah  wei-e 
no  more  really  chosen,  ordained  and  prepared 
ministers  of  God  to  act  in  great  crises  of  the 
Church  than  was  John  Knox.  In  slavery  and  in 
exile  his  nature  was  seasoned  and  toughened  to 
the  texture  of  true  heroism.  In  his  public  cate- 
chisinsis  at  Lano'niddrie,  he  first  trained  to  poou- 


JOHN  KNOX.  77 

lar  speaking  that  voice  which  afterward  shook 
thrones  and  dashed  to  pieces  the  schemes  and 
policies  of  kings,  queens,  princes  and  nobles. 

On  the  invitation  of  certain  noblemen  he  re- 
turned to  Scotland  "  in  the  brunt  of  the  battle." 
His  appearance  at  Edinburgh,  as  sudden  and 
as  unexpected  as  the  appearance  of  Elijah  at 
Samaria,  created  among  his  enemies  as  great  a 
panic  as  though  it  had  been  the  invasion  of  a 
hostile  army.  A  good  man  in  earnest,  and  with 
a  good  cause,  is  as  "  the  chariots  of  Israel  and  the 
horsemen  thereof,"  mightier  than  armies  and  na- 
vies. Although  under  sentence  of  outlawry  and 
liable  at  any  hour  to  be  arrested  and  executed^ 
Knox  resolved  to  stand  with  his  brethren  at  Stir- 
ling and  share  their  dangers  and  their  fate,  *'  by 
life,  by  death  or  else  by  both,  to  glorify  God." 
But  from  this  threatened  danger  the  Lord  pre- 
served both  him  and  them. 

Amidst  the  throes  of  incipient  civil  war,  and 
in  verification  of  his  own  prediction  while  a  gal- 
ley-slave, he  returned  to  St.  Andrews.  The  arch- 
bishop peremptorily  forbade  his  preaching  in  the 
cathedral,  and  threatened  that  in  case  he  should 
dare  to  do  so  he  would  be  shot  down  in  the 
pulpit  by  the  soldiers.  In  defiance  of  the  arch- 
bishop's threat,  and  in  spite  of  the  remonstrances 
of  his  friends,  he  yet  preached. 

This   was   the   very  crisis   and    pivot  of   the 


78  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

struggle.  At  Augsbui'g  the  princes  saved  the 
Lutheran  Reformation,  when  the  theologians 
would  have  compromised  or  surrendered.  Knox, 
by  his  splendid  intrepidity,  saved  the  cause  in 
Scotland,  when  nobles  as  brave  as  the  bravest 
would  have  yielded  to  the  demands  of  the  arch- 
bishop. John  Knox  at  St.  Andrews  is  a  figure 
as  grand  and  towering  as  Martin  Luther  before 
the  diet  of  Worms. 

The  effects  and  results  of  Knox's  j^reaching  at 
this  time  were  marvelous.  In  the  three  days  at 
St.  AndrcAvs — the  primal  see  of  Scotland — popery 
was  utterly  overthrown,  the  Reformed  worship 
was  set  u]),  images  and  j^ictures  were  torn  from 
the  churches  and  monasteries  were  demolished. 
Knox's  doctrine  was  as  fatal  to  popish  suj3ersti- 
tion  as  the  fire  which  ran  along  the  ground  in 
the  j)lague  of  the  hail  was  fatal  to  the  vegetable 
gods  of  Egypt.  Wheresoever  that  doctrine  went 
— and  it  ran  very  swiftly — popish  power  and 
popish  idolatry,  with  all  the  paraphernalia  there- 
of, melted  before  it. 

Li  less  than  a  month  after  his  triumphal  ap- 
pearance at  St.  Andrews,  Knox's  voice  was  ring- 
ing among  the  rafters  of  St.  Giles  and  of  the 
Abbey  Church  at  Edinburgh.  Chosen  at  once 
as  pastor  of  St.  Giles,  he  entered  upon  his  labors 
in  that  church  which  his  name  has  made  historic 
throughout  the   Avorld,  and    where   "  his   tongue 


OLD    ST.   GILES,   tDINBURGH. 


JOHN  KNOX.  81 

was  more  than  a  match  for  Mary's  sceptre,"  and 
where  so  often  "  his  voice  in  an  hour  j^ut  more 
life  into  men  than  six  hundred  trumpets  couhl." 

During  the  trying  vicissitudes  of  civil  war, 
Knox  was  tlie  one  pillar  of  strength  upon  which 
Scotland  leaned  with  her  whole  weight.  Wise  in 
counsel,  utterly  fearless  in  action,  mighty  in  the 
resistless  torrents  of  his  eloquence,  the  nation 
turned  to  him  instinctively  as  its  God-given 
leader.  With  a  price  upon  his  head,  with  hired 
assassins  waylaying  his  path,  ever  at  the  i)ost  of 
duty  and  of  danger,  '^  careless  of  his  own  carcass," 
thinking  only  of  his  dear  Scotland,  in  the  darkest 
extremities  of  perilous  times  w^aking  the  expir- 
ing courage  of  heroes  with  the  trumpet  peals  of 
his  eloquence,  he  fought  the  good  fight  bravely 
through,  until  within  one  year  peace  was  pro- 
claimed, popery  was  abolished  by  act  of  Parlia- 
ment, and  a  confession  prepared  principally  by 
himself  was  adopted.  There  never  was  a  nobler 
fight  or  one  that  was  more  signal  in  its  achieve- 
ments. A  complete  revolution  was  accomplished, 
popery  was  abolished,  the  Reformed  Church  had 
a  firm  status  and  a  complete  Presbyterian  organ- 
ization. The  battle  was  really  gained.  Hence- 
forth the  struggle  was  to  maintain  the  ground 
which  had  been  won. 

A  more  dangerous  power,  however,  than  fire 
and  sword  was  now  to  be  encountered  in  the  in- 


82  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

sidious  influence  of  a  brilliant  court  which  had 
as  its  centre  the  beautiful  and  fascinating  Mary 
Stuart.  The  eagle  eye  of  Knox  perceived  at  once 
the  point  of  danger,  and  Mary,  on  the  other  hand, 
as  soon  discovered  the  one  power  which  stood  in 
the  way  of  the  accomplishment  of  her  designs. 
Knox  was  summoned  to  Holyrood,  and  in  a  long 
conference  Mary  tried  her  best  to  intimidate  and 
awe  him.  She  might  as  well  have  tried  to  shake 
Salisbury  crags  with  the  breath  of  her  nostrils. 

When  the  news  of  the  massacre  of  the  Prot- 
estants at  Yassy  in  France  reached  Holyrood, 
Mary  had  a  grand  ball  to  celebrate  the  event. 
On  the  next  Sabbath,  Knox  thundered  in  St. 
Giles  against  those  who  "  were  more  exercised  in 
fiddling  and  flinging  than  in  reading  or  hearing- 
God's  most  blessed  word,  and  those  who  danced 
as  the  Philistines  their  fathers  danced,  for  the 
pleasure  which  they  take  in  the  displeasure  of 
God's  people."  Mary  sent  for  Knox  the  next  day. 
He  retracted  nothing,  but  told  the  queen  to  her 
face  that  her  uncles,  the  Guises  of  France, "  were 
enemies  to  God,  and  spared  not  to  spill  the  blood 
of  many  innocents,"  and  then  let  her  understand 
very  distinctly  that  "  it  was  not  his  vocation  to 
stand  at  her  chamber  door  and  to  have  no  further 
liberty,  but  to  whisper  his  mind  in  her  Grace's 
ear."    That  voice  was  for  Scotland  and  the  world. 

"  He  departed,"  as  he  tells  us  in  his  "  Historic," 


JOHN  KNOX.  83 

"  with  a  reasonable  merry  countenance."  "  He 
is  not  afraid  !"  whispered  the  papists  as  he  passed. 
Turning  upon  them,  he  replied,  "  Why  shoukl  the 
pleasing  countenance  of  a  gentilwoman  affray  me  ? 
I  have  luiked  on  the  faces  of  many  angry  men, 
and  yet  have  not  been  affrayed  above  measure." 
That  man  could  not  be  frightened.  Next,  Mary 
plied  all  her  exquisite  art  to  flatter  him,  but  in 
this  she  succeeded  no  better. 

Times  grew  critical.  Many  of  the  nobles  were 
proving  recreant.  Knox  sacrificed  some  of  his 
dearest  and  sweetest  friendships  rather  than  yield 
an  inch  or  an  iota  to  the  growing  encroachments 
of  the  papacy.  In  his  estimation  one  mass  was 
worse  for  Scotland  than  a  hostile  army.  The 
nobles  were  ready  and  anxious  to  compromise. 
Parliament  was  pliable  and  plastic  in  the  hands 
of  Mary.  Knox  alone  stood  in  her  way.  He, 
therefore,  must  be  silenced  or  be  put  out  of  her 
way  somehow. 

For  the  fifth  time  Knox  was  summoned  to  the 
palace.  In  a  torrent  of  tears  and  a  tempest  of 
passion,  Mary  stormed  and  railed  at  him.  Car- 
ried beyond  all  bounds  of  prudence,  she  at  last 
spitefully  exclaimed  :  ''  What  are  you  in  this  com- 
monwealth ?"  Grandly  Knox  replied  :  "  A  sub- 
ject born  w.thin  the  same,  madam  ;  and,  albeit  I 
am  neither  earl,  lord  nor  baron  within  it,  yet  has 
God  made  me — how  abject  soever  I  am  in  your 


84  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

eyes — a  profitable  member  within  the  same ;  yea, 
madam,  to  me  it  appertains  no  less  to  forewarn 
of  such  things  as  may  hurt  it,  if  I  foresee  them, 
than  it  doth  to  any  of  the  nobility." 

There  is  not  in  history  a  nobler  answer. 

For  writing  a  circular  letter,  which  he  was 
authorized  to  do  by  the  General  Assembly  when 
any  exigency  demanded  such  a  measure,  he  was 
arraio'ued  and  tried  for  treason.  He  made  a 
brave  and  able  defence,  and  to  the  bitter  disap- 
pointment and  chagrin  of  Mary,  he  was  acquit- 
ted. The  queen  had  learned  that  Knox  could 
not  be  intimidated,  neither  could  he  be  flat- 
tered, or  cajoled,  or  wheedled  into  compliance 
with  her  wishes.  She  had  also  discovered  that 
she  could  not  have  him  beheaded  for  treason  in 
Scotland. 

She  next  entered  into  a  conspiracy  by  which, 
through  a  wholesale  slaughter  of  the  Protestants, 
she  hoped  to  get  rid  of  her  enemy.  A  league 
had  been  formed  betw^een  the  pope  and  the 
Guises,  by  which  Protestantism  in  France  was  to 
be  utterly  rooted  out  by  force.  To  this  infernal 
bond  Mary  set  her  fair  and  jeweled  hand,  and 
that  brought  Scotland  within  the  fatal  scope  of 
the  league.  But  there  is  a  wheel  within  a  wheel. 
A  jealousy  between  Mary  and  her  husband.  Darn- 
ley,  and  the  consequent  murder  of  Pizzio,  turned 
the  fierce  currents  of  history  into  other  channels, 


JOHN  KNOX.  85 

and  Scotland  was  saved  from  the  horrors  of  a 
massacre  such  as  that  of  St.  Bartholomew. 

Under  the  regency  of  Murray  the  Church  had 
peace,  and  the  revolution  of  1560  was  ratified. 
There  was  still  a  strong  and  vicious  papal  party, 
but  by  firmness  the  regent  kept  down  all  insur- 
rections until  he  was  taken  off  by  the  hand  of 
an  assassin. 

Under  the  regency  of  Lennox  there  was  civil 
war.  The  castle  of  Edinburgh  was  held  at  this 
time  by  the  queen's  forces,  and  these  forces  were 
under  the  command  of  the  apostate  Kircaldy  of 
Grange.  Overwhelmed  with  grief  on  account  of 
the  death  of  his  beloved  Murray,  Knox  had  been 
smitten  with  apoplexy,  and  was  no  longer  able 
to  walk  to  church  or  to  ascend  the  pulpit  without 
help.  Yet  he  was  as  watchful  and  fearless  as 
ever.  Not  liking  the  reports  which  he  received 
of  the  preaching  in  St.  Giles,  Grange  came  down 
to  church  one  morning  with  a  band  of  desperate 
men  to  intimidate  the  preacher.  The  old  man 
rightly  interpreted  their  presence  as  a  threat, 
and,  his  infirmities  forgotten  for  the  time  being, 
his  wonted  fires  flamed  forth  again  ;  and  leveling 
his  thunders  right  at  Grange,  he  made  the  very 
shingles  on  St.  Giles  tremble. 

His  friends  now  feared  for  his  life.  The  castle 
was  full  of  Hamiltons,  all  thirsting  for  his  blood. 
He  was  shot  at  through  the  window  of  his  own 


S6  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

house.  But  he  was  totally  unconscious  of  fear. 
At  length  he  was  prevailed  upon  to  leave  Edin- 
burgh, on  the  ground  that  his  longer  continuance 
there  would  involve  the  lives  of  his  friends.  He 
went  to  St.  Andrews. 

James  Melville,  who  was  then  a  student,  has 
preserved  for  us  in  his  diary  a  very  graphic  ac- 
count of  the  habits  and  appearance  of  the  great 
reformer  at  this  time.  He  brings  the  scenes 
vividly  before  us.  We  see  the  tottering  old  man 
walking  and  sitting  in  the  yard  at  St.  Salvator's 
college,  calling  the  students  around  him,  exhort- 
ing them  to  be  diligent  in  their  studies,  to  know 
God  and  his  work  in  the  country,  and  to  stand 
by  the  '^gude  cause."  With  his  heart  yet  young, 
we  find  him  encouraging  the  students  by  liis 
presence  at  a  play  which  was  acted  by  them  on 
the  occasion  of  the  marriage  of  one  of  their  re- 
gents. We  see  him  in  his  great  weakness  creep- 
ing to  the  kirk,  "slowly  and  warily,"  with  a 
"  furring  of  martics  about  his  neck,"  a  staff  in  one 
hand  and  his  trusty  servant  su23porting  him  on 
the  other  side.  We  see  him  lifted  bodily  by  two 
men  into  the  pulpit,  and  then  leaning  wearily 
upon  it  for  support.  We  hear  his  tremulous, 
faltering,  uncertain  tones  as  he  opens  the  text ; 
we  listen  as  he  "  proceeds  moderately  for  the  space 
of  half  an  hour;"  and  then  entering  upon  his 
application,  he  warms  and  glows  until  he  makes 


THE    HOUSE    OF    JOHN    KNOX,    EDINBURGH. 


JOHN  KNOX.  89 

the  Students  *'  grew  and  tremble  so  that  they  can- 
not hold  their  pens  to  write,"  and  kindling  with 
the  rush  and  momentum  of  his  thought,  the  spirit 
triumphing  over  the  half-dead  body,  we  see  the 
shriveled  limbs  become  instinct  with  life  and 
energy,  and  the  whole  man  ''  so  active  and  vigor- 
ous that  he  is  like  to  ding  the  pulpit  in  blads  and 
fly  out  of  it." 

Providence  opened  up  the  way  for  his  return 
to  Edinburgh  before  he  died.  He  returned  ac- 
cording to  an  earnest  invitation,  and  on  the  ex- 
press and  emphatic  condition  that  he  "  should  not 
temper  his  tongue  or  cease  to  speak  against  the 
men  of  the  castle." 

Once  more  he  is  back  in  his  old  pulpit,  but  his 
voice  can  no  longer  fill  St.  Giles.  To  accommo- 
date him  with  a  smaller  audience  chamber,  the 
congregation  prepared  for  him  the  Tolbooth 
church.  While  these  preparations  are  in  prog- 
ress, I  invite  you  to  accompany  me  for  a  little 
while  to  the  Continent, 

When  Knox  was  driven  out  of  England  by 
"  Bloody  Mary,"  he  found  a  grateful  asylum  in 
France,  where  he  formed  many  intimate  and  ar- 
dent friendships.  Perilous  times  cement  kindred 
spirits. 

While  Luther  was  lecturing  on  philosophy  at 
Wittenberg,  the  venerable  Lefevre  in  France, 
through  the  study  of  the  Epistles  of  Paul,  had 

8  * 


90  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

reached  the  central  doctrine  of  the  Eeformation, 
justification  by  faith.  Brigonnet,  bishop  of 
Meaux,  occupied  the  same  theological  ground. 
When,  therefore,  this  doctrine  was  proclaimed  in 
Germany,  France  responded  to  it  with  a  quick 
and  live  sympathy.  The  leaven  of  the  gospel 
spread  rapidly  from  the  professor  in  her  great 
university  to  the  peasant  in  the  furrow — from  the 
prince  by  the  throne  to  the  mechanic  at  his  bench. 
Margaret  of  Yalois,  queen  of  Navarre,  the  witty, 
the  accomplished  and  the  beloved  sister  of  Fran- 
cis I.,  was  in  full  sympathy  with  the  Reforma- 
tion, and  for  some  time  she  carried  the  sympathies 
of  her  roval  brother  with  her.  But  it  was  not  to 
be  expected  that  the  enemies  of  the  gospel  would 
quietly  witness  these  rapid  conquests  without  put- 
ting men  to  death  '^  for  the  word  of  God  and  for 
the  testimony  of  Jesus  Christ."  As  in  other 
countries,  so  in  France,  persecutions  raged  fiercely. 
Loaded  with  every  opprobrious  epithet,  charged 
with  crimes  as  atrocious  as  those  which  were  laid 
against  the  early  Christians  by  the  pagans,  sub- 
jected to  tortures  as  refined  in  cruelty  as  those  of 
Nero,  in  spite  of  fire  and  steel  and  the  balangoir, 
the  noble  band  of  martyrs  and  confessors  in 
France  heroically  maintained  their  course,  singing 
psalms  at  the  stake,  "  glorifying  God  in  the  fires," 
bearing  their  testimony  to  the  truth,  until  their 
enraged  persecutors,  in  order  to  silence  them,  cut 


JOHN  KNOX.  91 

out  their  tongues  and  flung  them,  yet  quivering, 
into  their  fUces.  In  the  sixteenth  century,  France 
was  the  bloodiest  theatre  of  persecution  of  any 
country  in  Europe  save  one. 

Yet  the  blood  of  these  glorious  martyrs  only 
fertilized  the  soil  for  the  propagation  of  the  truth. 
The  smoke  of  their  sacrifice  disseminated  the 
principles  for  which  they  died.  The  Scriptures 
were  translated  into  French  by  Olivetan,  the  rela- 
tive of  Calvin.  The  Psalms,  turned  into  metre 
by  Marot,  "  the  poet  of  princes  and  the  prince  of 
poets,"  were  sung  at  the  court  and  on  the  fashion- 
able promenade  of  Paris,  and  were  hummed  even 
by  King  Francis  himself.  The  printing-press 
was  busy.  It  teemed  with  books  and  tracts. 
Tracts  were  scattered  like  autumnal  leaves  in  the 
streets  of  Paris. 

A  j)lacard  against  the  mass  was  one  night 
posted  on  the  walls  of  the  principal  cities  through- 
out the  kingdom,  and  even  on  the  king's  own 
door.  Francis  was  infuriated  when  he  thought 
of  the  insult  against  his  own  majesty,  and  was 
alarmed  and  horrified  when  he  thought  of  the  in- 
sult against  the  holy  sacrament.  As  a  public 
expiation  for  this  latter  oflfence,  he  ordered  a  sol- 
emn procession,  which  in  its  object,  its  spirit,  its 
incidents,  its  grotesque  blending  of  extreme  de- 
voutness  with  savage  ferocity,  is  one  of  the  most 
unique  in  history.     Everything  possible  was  done 


^")2  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

to  make  it  the  most  imposing  spectacle  of  the 
kind  which  had  ever  been  witnessed  in  France. 
The  highest  dignitaries  in  Church  and  State,  em- 
blazoned with  the  insignia  of  their  offices,  adorned 
the  ranks.  Every  shrine  in  Paris  was  emptied 
of  relics,  and  the  procession  was  graced  with  all 
the  treasures  of  the  reliquary,  from  the  crown  of 
thorns  to  the  beard  of  St.  Louis.  Under  a  canopy 
borne  by  princes  of  the  blood,  the  host  was  car- 
ried by  the  bishop  of  Paris.  In  six  public  places 
on  the  route  of  the  procession  as  many  altars  were 
erected  for  the  repose  of  the  sacrament,  and  be- 
side each  of  these  altars  there  was  a  scaffold,  a 
pile  of  fagots,  and  an  iron  beam,  so  arranged  by 
means  of  pivot  and  pulley  that  it  could  be  raised 
and  lowered  at  will.  When  the  head  of  the  pro- 
cession reached  these  altars  successively,  a  Re- 
former was  tied  to  the  end  of  the  beam,  and  by  a 
see-saw  movement  was  plunged  again  and  again 
into  a  bath  of  fire.  These  awful  dippings  were  so 
timed  that,  the  ligaments  being  consumed,  the 
victim  dropped  into  the  blazing  j)ile  just  as  the 
king  was  devoutly  kneeling  at  the  altar  in  adora- 
tion of  the  host.  The  misguided,  maddened 
populace  bowed  down  in  the  streets  to  worship 
bits  of  wood  and  dead  men's  bones,  while,  at  the 
same  time,  they  morbidly  luxuriated  in  the  exqui- 
site tortures  of  those  "  of  whom  the  world  was 
not  worthy."     Strange  extremes  meet  in  human 


JOHN  KNOX.  93 

nature !  This  spectacle  engendered  a  morbid 
taste  for  public  slaughterings,  which  has  many 
times  since  converted  France  into  an  Aceldama,  a 
field  of  blood,  and  which  has  had  as  its  legitimate 
results  the  guillotine  of  the  Revolution  and  the 
awful  butcheries  of  the  Commune,  three  centuries 
later. 

A  French  refugee  in  Basle  heard  with  keenest 
pain  reports  of  the  awful  sufferings  of  his  friends 
in  France,  and  his  indignation  was  kindled  to  a 
white  heat  when  the  persecutors,  with  the  king 
at  their  head,  attempted  to  palliate  the  atrocities 
which  they  were  committing  by  publishing  the 
basest  calumnies  against  both  the  opinions  and 
practices  of  the  Reformers.  He  determined  that 
these  traduced  and  persecuted  people  of  God 
should  be  vindicated.  To  this  end  he  wrote  a 
little  book,  and  in  a  bold  and  immortal  address 
dedicated  it  to  Francis  II.  This  was  the  first 
edition  of  what  the  world  now  knows  as  Calvin's 
Institutes,  the  noblest  apology  ever  penned  by  an 
uninspired  man. 

The  Institutes  of  Calvin  at  once  gave  consist- 
ency and  symmetry  to  the  Reformed  Church  in 
France  ;  and,  in  spite  of  sceptre  and  sword,  ce- 
mented by  the  blood  of  martyrs,  it  grew  strong, 
until  it  published  its  own  apology,  in  its  doctrines 
as  crystallized  in  the  confession  of  1559.  At  this 
time,  a  single  step  in  the  right  direction  would 


94  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

have  emancipated  France  from  the  thraldom  of 
the  papacy,  but  she  knew  not  "  the  time  of  her 
visitation."  Behind  the  throne,  upon  which  sat 
a  poor,  weak,  sickly,  uxorious  boy  yet  in  his  teens, 
stood  the  Lorraines,  with  the  duke  of  Guise  at  their 
head,  and  they  with  consummate  ability  and  craft 
and  utter  unscrupulousness  wielded  the  poAvers  of 
the  government  for  the  suppression  of  the  gos- 
pel. It  was  an  ominous  conjunction — the  gloomy 
despot,  Philip  II.,  on  the  throne  of  Spain,  the 
duke  of  Guise  behind  the  throne  of  France,  with 
Mary  Stuart,  niece  of  Guise,  as  wife  of  the  pup- 
pet king,  and  the  mother  of  Mary  and  sister  of 
Guise  as  queen  regent  of  Scotland.  It  was  a  con- 
junction which  portended  evil,  and  it  brought 
upon  France  "  a  day  of  wasteness  and  desolation,'^ 
a  time  when  God's  people  "  were  scattered  and 
peeled,  meted  out  and  trodden  under  foot ;"  a  time 
when  every  sanctuary  of  safety  and  of  right  was 
ruthlessly  invaded  and  wantonly  desecrated ;  a 
time  when  clustering  villages  of  peaceful,  thrifty. 
God-fearing  citizens  were  razed  as  though  they 
liad  been  dens  of  wild  beasts,  and  with  an  over- 
throw so  utter  and  complete  that  not  a  stone  was 
left  to  mark  the  spot  where  they  had  been,  nor  a 
human  being  to  tell  the  story  of  their  destruction ; 
a  time  when  rivers  in  their  courses  w^ere  dammed 
up  with  the  bodies  of  slaughtered  saints ;  a  time 
when  tho  lords  and  ladies  of  the  court  regal?d 


0$S 


JOHN    CALVUJ. 


JOHN  KNOX.  97 

themselves  daily,  amidst  pleasantry  and  repartee, 
by  witnessing,  from  the  windows  of  the  palace, 
the  mortal  agonies  of  tortured  martyrs ;  a  time 
when  the  atmosphere  of  tlie  court  became  pesti- 
lential from  the  stench  of  blood ;  a  time  when 
little  children  at  their  plays  talked  about  and 
familiarized  themselves  with  the  thought  of  death 
by  martyrdom. 

The  massacre  of  Vassy,  in  open  and  utter  defi- 
ance of  the  edict  of  January,  which  has  been 
called  the  Magna  Charta  of  religious  liberty  in 
France,  demonstrated  to  the  Protestants  the  abso- 
lute necessity  of  self-defence.  Longer  non-resist- 
ance would  be  suicidal.  They  rallied,  therefore, 
under  the  standards  of  their  renowned  leaders 
Conde  and  the  Colignis.  Jeanne  d'Albret, 
queen  of  Navarre,  put  her^young  son  Henry  into 
the  ranks  as  a  soldier,  and  j^awned  her  crown 
jewels  to  raise  money  for  the  war.  Charlotte  de 
Laval,  urging  her  husband,  the  admiral  Coligni, 
to  take  up  arms  in  defence  of  the  suffering  Pro- 
testants, was  asked  by  him :  "  Ai-e  you  prepared 
to  endure  confiscation,  flight,  exile,  shame,  naked- 
ness and  hunger,  and  what  is  worse,  to  suffer  all 
this  in  your  children  ?  Are  you  prepared  to  see 
vour  husband  branded  as  a  rebel  and  dra2:2:ed  to 
a  scaffold,  while  your  children,  disgraced  and 
ruined,  are  begging  their  bread  at  the  hands  of 
their  enemies?     I  give  you  eight  days  to  reflect 


9S  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

Upon  it;  and  when  you  shall  be  prepared  for  such 
reverses,  I  will  be  ready  to  set  forward  and  per- 
ish with  you  and  our  friends."  Charlotte  in- 
stantly replied  :  *'  The  eight  days  are  already  ex- 
pired. Go,  sir,  where  your  duty  calls  you. 
Heaven  will  not  give  the  victory  to  our  enemies. 
In  the  name  of  God  I  call  upon  you  to  resist  no 
longer,  but  save  our  brethren  or  die  in  the  at- 
tempt." The  admiral  was  in  his  saddle  the  next 
morning.  There  were  heroines  as  well  as  heroes 
in  those  days. 

The  baleful  theory  of  uniformity — the  theory 
that  there  was  only  room  in  France  for  one 
Church,  and  that  the  Roman  Catholic  Church — 
divided  the  nation  into  two  hostile  camps  and 
plunged  the  country  into  a  series  of  civil 
wars.  Spain  sympathized  with  and  aided  the 
Catholic  party,  Philip  II.  urging  upon  France 
the  policy  of  extermination  which  he  was  carry- 
ing out  in  the  Netherlands.  England  and  the 
Netherlands  sympathized  with  and  aided  the  Prot- 
estants, the  latter  country  sending  her  immortal 
prince  of  Orange  to  take  the  field.  It  was  a  strug- 
gle great  and  memorable  both  in  the  principles 
at  stake  and  in  the  distinguished  leaders  on  each 
side.  It  was  the  genius,  heroism  and  godly  enthu- 
siasm of  the  Bourbon  and  the  Coligni  on  the  one 
side,  and  the  Machiavellian  craft,  intrigue  and  dev- 
ilish hate  of  the  Guise  and  the  Medici  on  the  other. 


WILLIAM    OF    ORANGE. 


JOHN  KNOX.  101 

Wars  follow  each  other  in  rapid  succession. 
"  Blood  toucheth  blood."  The  fields  Dreux,  St. 
Denis,  Jarnac,  Moncontour  and  Arnay  le  Due 
rendered  the  valor  of  the  Huguenots  historic. 
Conde  and  D'Andelot  are  dead  on  the  field. 
Then  there  comes  a  lull  in  the  din  of  battle,  a 
short  respite  from  war.  Negotiations  are  going 
on  concerning  a  marriage  alliance  which  is  to 
unite  the  two  parties  and  give  lasting  peace  to 
France.  The  admiral  Coligni  is  invited  to  the 
court,  and  has  repeated  interviews  with  the  young 
king  Charles  IX.  He  urges  upon  Charles  the 
policy  of  uniting  France  and  the  Netherlands  in 
an  alliance  against  Spain.  Catharine,  the  queen- 
mother,  on  the  other  hand,  used  all  the  witchery 
of  her  power  to  thwart  that  policy  and  to  poison 
the  mind  of  Charles  against  Coligni. 

One  loves  to  dream  of  the  results  that  would 
have  attended  the  policy  of  Coligni.  France 
Protestant  and  in  alliance  with  the  Netherlands, 
and  the  allied  armies  of  the  two  countries  led  by 
such  men  as  the  prince  of  Orange  and  Coligni ! 
What  a  different  history  of  Europe  we  would  be 
reading  to-day,  and  what  a  different  map  of 
Europe  our  children  would  be  studying  to-day ! 

The  admiral  Coligni  was  at  this  time  the  head 
and  soul  of  the  Huguenot  party.  He  had  gained 
the  ear,  and  by  his  frank,  high-toned  Christian 
chivalry  was  rapidly  winning  the  heart,  of  King 


102  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

Charles.  The  queen  mother,  her  son  the  duke  of 
Anjou  and  the  young  duke  of  Guise  took  the 
alarm.  Charles  must  be  rescued  from  the  potent 
mfluence  of  Coligni  at  all  hazards,  and  these  three 
spirits  balk  at  nothing  which  will  further  their 
plans.  They  resolved  upon  the  assassination  of 
the  admiral,  but  through  unsteadiness  of  aim  the 
assassin  only  succeeded  in  severely  wounding  him. 
The  conspirators  had  hoped  to  destroy  the  Hugue- 
nots by  striking  down  their  illustrious  chieftain. 
In  this  they  were  foiled.  They  then  determined 
to  compass  their  ends  by  a  general  massacre,  which 
was  to  begin  with,  the  Huguenot  nobility  then 
assembled  in  Paris  on  the  occasion  of  the  mar- 
riage of  the  gallant  Henry  of  Navarre  with  the 
sister  of  Charles  IX.  The  beginning  being  made 
in  Paris,  the  massacre  was  to  become  general 
throughout  the  provinces. 

Catharine,  with  all  the  magic  power  which  she 
exercised  over  her  children,  and  with  all  her  con- 
summate Medician  art,  began  to  work  upon  the 
king  to  wrest  from  him  the  fatal  order.  She  ap- 
pealed, in  turn,  to  every  motive  and  passion. 
With  exquisite  skill  she  touched  every  spring  of 
his  being — his  fears,  his  suspicions,  his  pride,  his 
vindictiveness,  his  vanity,  his  jealousy,  until,  mad- 
dened, phrensied,  in  a  delirium  of  rage,  vexation 
and  mortification,  he  exclaimed  with  a  horrible 
oath,  that  since  they  thought  it  right  to  kill  the 


JOHN  KNOX.  103 

admiral,  he  was  determined  that  every  Huguenot 
in  France  should  perish  with  him,  so  that  not  one 
should  be  left  to  reproach  him  with  the  crime. 

This  happened  an  hour  before  midnight.  Ar- 
i-angements  were  instantly  completed  for  the 
murdering  to  begin  the  next  morning.  The 
signal  was  to  have  been  given  from  the  great  bell 
of  the  Palace  of  Justice  at  daybreak,  but  Catha- 
rine, in  her  impatience  and  nervousness,  ordered 
the  tocsin  to  be  sounded  from  the  belfry  of  a 
neidiborino;  church  an  hour  and  a  half  earlier. 
Then  Catharine  and  her  two  sons,  Charles  IX. 
and  the  duke  of  Anjou,  stole  to  a  window  of  the 
Louvre  and  tremblingly  peered  into  the  dark  and 
quiet  streets.  All  was  as  still  as  death  until  they 
were  startled  by  a  single  pistol-shot.  A  sudden 
spasm  of  remorse  seized  the  guilty  trio,  and  they 
sent  word  to  Guise  that  he  should  proceed  no 
further  with  massacre.  But  it  was  too  late. 
Guise,  with  his  leash  of  sleuth-hounds,  was  al- 
ready well  on  his  way  to  the  hotel  of  the  admiral. 
The  soldiers  who  had  been  stationed  to  gunrd  the 
hotel  betrayed  their  trust,  and  became  the  eager 
accomplices  of  the  murderers.  Awakened  by  the 
noise  at  the  gate  and  in  the  halls,  Coligni,  yet 
weak  from  wounds,  had  arisen  from  his  bed,  had 
thrown  around  him  his  dressing-gown  and  was 
sittino'  in  an  arm-cliair  when  the  assassins  en- 
tered.     He  did    not  move.     There  was  not  the 


104  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

tremor  of  a  muscle.  There  was  not  the  quiver 
of  a  nerve.  He  looked  into  the  faces  of  those 
desperadoes  as  calmly  as  though  they  had  been 
his  children  coming  to  kiss  him  good-night,  and 
regarded  their  naked  swords  and  daggers  with  as 
much  composure  as  though  they  had  been  the 
arms  of  his  mother  extended  to  embrace  him. 
One  of  the  most  desperate  of  these  desperate  men 
was  wont  to  say  that  he  had  never  seen  man  meet 
death  with  such  constancy  and  firmness. 

The  assassins  made  sw^ift  and  thorough  work  of 
it.  In  the  court  below.  Guise  and  a  few  of  kin- 
dred spirit  sat  upon  their  horses.  Up  from  the 
horsemen  comes  the  eager,  impatient  cry  :  ''  Have 
you  done  it?"  "It  is  over,"  was  the  reply  that 
dropped  from  the  window.  Again  comes  up  the 
cry :  "  But  here  is  Guise,  who  will  not  believe  it  un- 
less he  sees  it  with  his  ow^n  eyes.  Throw  him  out 
of  the  window."  And  the  gashed  body  of  the  best 
and  the  greatest  man  then  in  France  was  thrown 
down  upon  the  pavement  of  the  court  beneath 
as  though  it  had  been  the  carcass  of  a  dog. ,  Not 
yet  satisfied,  Guise  dismounted,  stooped  down,  and 
in  the  darkness  of  the  early  morning  peered  into 
the  face  of  the  dead  hero.  The  face  being  bloody 
beyond  recognition.  Guise  coolly  took  his  handker- 
chief from  his  pocket,  wiped  the  blood  from  the 
features  and  again  scrutinized  them  narrowly 
"  'Tis  he.     I  know  him,"  he  said,  and  as  he  rose 


JOHN  KNOX.  105 

gave  the  body  a  kick,  then  vaulting  into  his 
saddle,  and  shouting,  "  Courage,  sokliers !  We 
have  made  a  good  beginning.  Now  for  the 
others !"  he  galloped  from  the  court-yard. 

The  blood  of  the  great,  the  good,  the  immortal 
Colisini  was  the  first  that  was  shed  in  this  awful 
massacre.  His  body  was  afterward  subjected  to 
every  indignity  and  insult  which  satanic  malig- 
nity and  ingenuity  could  suggest. 

The  preparations  and  arrangements  for  the 
massacre  were  extensive,  elaborate  and  complete. 
They  ^vere  made  by  those  who  had  a  genius  for 
laying  snares  and  weaving  nets  and  setting  traps 
and  achieving  success  in  murder  on  a  grand  scale. 
Ever  since  the  great  procession  of  exj^iation  under 
Francis  II.,  the  people  of  France  had  been  un- 
dergoing a  continuous  education  which  was  fitting 
them  to  become  actors  in  tragedies  of  horror. 
The  inflammable  populace  of  Paris  were  as  ripe 
for  a  carnival  of  blood  as  tinder  is  ready  for  a 
spark.  The  houses  of  the  Huguenots  were  all 
marked.  The  papists  had  as  a  badge  a  strijD  of 
white  linen  round  the  arm  and  a  wdiite  cross  in 
the  cap,  while  in  the  windows  of  their  houses 
flambeaux  were  burning  for  the  double  purpose 
of  designation  and  of  giving  light  to  the  murder- 
ers in  the  streets.  The  signal  was  sounded  from 
every  steeple  in  the  city.  ''Kill!  kill!  Down 
with  the  Huguenots!      Down  with  the  Hugue- 


106  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

nots  !"  were  the  watchwords.  Suddenly,  Paris  was 
converted  into  hell.  The  halls  and  staircases  of 
the  Louvre  were  slippery  with  the  best  and 
noblest  blood  in  France.  There  was  no  more  pity 
for  the  toothless  babe  than  for  the  bearded  man. 
Dead  and  dying  bodies  rained  from  the  windows. 
In  some  places  blood  reached  the  shoe  latchets. 
But  I  draw  a  veil  over  the  horrible,  sickening  de- 
tails. 

Fast  as  couriers  could  carry  the  news,  the  hell- 
ish contagion  spread  throughout  the  provinces. 
In  each  city  and  town  and  village  the  scenes  of 
Paris  were  repeated,  until,  according  to  some  esti- 
mates, as  many  as  one  hundred  thousand  were 
slain.  And  certainly  it  will  not  lessen  our  sad 
interest  in  this  awful  tragedy  to  know  that  the 
victims  of  it  were  Presbyterians  in  doctrine,  wor- 
ship and  discipline. 

When  the  news  reached  Spain,  Philip  II.  was 
beside  himself  with  joy.  He  regarded  the  mas- 
sacre as  the  highest  possible  exemplification  of 
Christian  virtue.  At  Pome  the  pope  and  cardi- 
nals went  in  state  to  church  and  had  Te  Deums 
sung  and  masses  said  in  honor  of  the  event ;  and 
genius,  in  the  person  of  Vasari,  was  employed  to 
perpetuate  the  memory  of  it  by  a  painting  on  the 
walls  of  the  Sistine  chapel,  and  there,  on  those 
walls,  stands  that  painting,  the  damning  evidence 
of  the   pope's   complicity  in   the   massacre.     A 


JOHN  KNOX.  107 

medal  was  also  struck  to  commemorate  the  event. 
But  when  the  news  reached  England,  the  court 
went  into  mourning,  and  Queen  Elizabeth  did  her- 
self and  her  nation  immortal  honor  by  adminis- 
tering a  stinging  rebuke  to  Charles  IX.  through 
his  ambassador.  When  the  news  reached  Edin- 
burgh, Knox  was  overwhelmed  with  grief,  be- 
cause many  of  his  personal  friends  had  been 
slauofhtered.  Once  more  the  old  man  was  carried 
to  the  pulpit  and  lifted  into  it,  and  then  he 
poured  out  the  red-hot  lava  of  his  indignation 
against  the  perpetrators  of  the  hellish  outrage, 
and  denounced  the  judgments  of  Heaven  against 
the  cruel  murderer  and  false  traitor,  the  king  of 
France,  consigning  him  to  the  eternal  "  execra- 
tions of  posterity  to  come."  This  was  one  of  his 
last  public  services.  After  this  he  preached  the 
installation  sermon  of  his  colleague  and  successor 
in  the  Tolbooth  church.  That  was  his  last  public 
service. 

In  devout  meditation,  in  hearing  God's  word, 
in  joyously  entertaining  his  friends — for  Knox  was 
eminently  a  genial  and  social  man — in  connseling 
his  session  and  his  colleague,  in  trying  to  reclaim 
Kircaldy  of  Grange,  in  solemnly  admonishing 
Morton,  who  was  about  becoming  regent,  in  taking 
affectionate  leave  of  relatives  and  friends, — the 
few  days  that  remained  to  him  on  earth  were  occu- 
pied.    With  exclamations  and  ejaculations  dri[)- 


108  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

ping  Avitli  the  very  myrrli  of  the  gospel  constantly 
on  his  lips,  he  lay  waiting  till  "God's  work  was 
done."  With  a  clear  intellect  and  an  unclouded 
spirit  he  triumphantly  ended  his  "  long  and  pane- 
ful  battel." 

In  the  middle  of  a  paved  street  in  Edinburgh 
the  passer-by  reads,  upon  a  square  stone,  this  in- 
scription : 

J.  K. 
1572. 

Beneath  that  spot,  over  which  now  trundles  the 
commerce  of  a  great  city,  were  once  laid  the  re- 
mains of  him  who  "  Never  feared  the  Face  of 
Ma^." 

He  has  been  dead  these  three  hundred  years. 
During  all  this  time  history  has  been  busy  with 
his  life  and  his  character.  These  have  been 
fiercely  assailed  and  eloquently  defended.  For 
three  centuries  his  work  has  been  speaking  for 
him  with  ever-increasing  volume  of  meaning  and 
of  eloquence.  He  needs  no  other  monument. 
He  needs  no  other  apology. 

He  is  charged  with  rudeness  and  coarseness 
toward  the  elegant  lady,  Mary  Stuart  queen  of 
Scots,  but  there  is  absolutely  nothing  in  the  rec- 
ords to  justify  such  a  charge.  He  was  firm — firm 
as  the  Pentland  hills  ;  he  was  inflexible — inflex- 
ible as  the  fully-developed,  storm-strengthened 
oak;  and   having  learned,  as  he  tells    us,  from 


JOHN  KNOX.  109 

Isaiali  and  Jeremiah,  to  "  call  wickedness  by  its 
own  terms,  a  fig  a  fig,  and  a  spade  a  spade,"  he 
did  speak  in  all  plainness  as  both  his  '^  vocation 
and  conscience  craved,"  but  always  with  dignity 
and  courtesy,  nevertheless.  With  some  soft  senti- 
mentalists it  is  an  unpardonable  offence  that  he 
should  have  made  Mary  weep  and  "  shed  never  a 
tear  himself."  Hear  his  own  defence :  "  Madam, 
in  God's  23resence  I  speak ;  I  never  delighted  in 
the  weeping  of  any  of  God's  creatures — yea,  I 
can  scarcely  abide  the  tears  of  my  own  boys, 
whom  my  own  hand  corrects,  much  less  can  I  re- 
joice in  your  Majesty's  weeping ;  but  seeing  that 
I  have  offered  you  no  just  occasion  to  be  offended, 
but  have  spoken  the  truth,  as  my  vocation  craves 
of  me,  I  must  sustain,  albeit  unwillingly,  your 
Majesty's  tears  rather  than  I  dare  hurt  my  con- 
science or  betray  ray  commonwealth  through  my 
silence."  If  that  be  coarseness,  perpetual  thanks- 
givings to  God  that  John  Knox  had  the  grace  to 
use  it!  "Better,"  said  Regent  Morton,  "that 
women  weep  than  that  bearded  men  be  forced  to 
weep." 

But  I  submit  that  such  a  man  as  this  is  not  to 
be  measured  by  the  rules  of  etiquette  or  by  the 
laws  of  gallantry.  Knox  had  more  serious  busi- 
ness than  playing  the  courtier.  Every  time  that 
he  stood  before  Queen  Mary  he  carried  the  spirit- 
ual destiny  of  millions  on  the  tip  of  his  tongue. 

10 


110  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

He  was  there  to  defend  truth  which  had  taken 
hold  of  every  fibre  of  his  being.  He  might  have 
pleased  Mary,  but  by  doing  so  he  would  have  be- 
traved  the  cause  of  Protestantism  in  Scotland,  and 
that  would  have  involved  the  cause  of  Protestant- 
ism in  England.  So  long  as  Elijah  the  Tishbite 
and  John  the  Baptist  need  no  apology  for  coarse- 
ness, John  Knox  shall  need  none. 

But  suppose  he  had  faults?  They  are  but 
specks  on  the  surface  of  the  sun.  The  sun  makes 
the  earth  rich  in  all  beauty  and  fertility,  notwith- 
standino'  and  Knox  made  Scotland  "  blossom  as 
the  rose."  "  Knox  is  the  one  Scotchman  to  whom 
of  all  others  his  country  and  the  world  owe  a 
debt,"  says  the  weird  hero-worshiper,  Thomas 
Carlyle. 

"  It  was  not  for  nothing  that  John  Knox  had 
for  ten  years  preached  in  Edinburgh  and  his 
words  had  been  echoed  from  a  thousand  pulpits. 
His  was  the  voice  which  taught  the  peasant  of  the 
Lothians  that  he  was  a  freeman,  the  equal  in  the 
sight  of  God  w^itli  the  proudest  23eer  or  jDrelate 
that  had  trampled  on  his  forefathers.  The  mur- 
ders, the  adulteries,  the  Bothwell  scandals,  and 
other  monstrous  games  which  had  been  played 
before  Heaven  there  since  the  return  of  the  queen 
from  France,  had  been  like  whirlwinds  fanning  the 
fires  of  the  new  teaching.  Princes  and  lords  only 
might  have  noble  blood,  but  every  Scot  had  a 


JOHN  KNOX.  Ill 

soul  to  be  saved,  a  conscience  to  be  outraged  by 
these  enormous  doings,  and  an  arm  to  strike  with 
in  revenge  for  them.  Elsewhere  the  plebeian  ele- 
ment of  nations  had  risen  to  power  through  the 
arts  and  industries  which  make  men  rich ;  the 
commons  of  Scotland  were  sons  of  their  religion, 
while  the  nobles  were  splitting  into  factions,  taking 
securities  for  their  fortunes  or  entangling  them- 
selves in  political  intrigues ;  the  tradesmen,  the 
mechanics,  the  poor  tillers  of  the  soil,  had  sprung 
suddenly  into  consciousness  with  spiritual  convic- 
tions for  which  they  were  prepared  to  live  or  die. 
The  fear  of  God  in  them  left  no  room  for  the  fear 
of  any  other  thing,  and  in  the  very  fierce  intoler- 
ance which  Knox  had  poured  into  their  veins 
they  had  become  a  force  in  the  State.  The  poor 
clay  which,  a  generation  earlier,  the  haughty  baron 
would  have  trodden  into  slime,  had  been  heated 
red  hot  in  the  furnace  of  a  new  faith."*  Tlius  liis- 
torians  who  have  no  sympathy  with  Knox's  creed 
are  constrained  to  recosrnize  the  inestimable  value 
of  his  work  and  his  teachings.  Sucli  services  as 
he  rendered  to  his  country  and  to  the  world  might 
condone  for  a  little  rudeness  in  the  presence  of  a 
woman  whom  he  believed  to  be,  and  whom  history 
has  adjudged  to  be,  a  murderess. 

He  is  charged,  moreover,  with  intolerance. 
But  of  what  was  he  intolerant?  Of  error  and 
corruption  that  were  rank  and  pestiferous,  of  tyr- 

*  Froude. 


112  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

anny  which  treated  the  soul  of  man  as  a  mere 
plaything  of  kings,  lords  and  prelates.  He  did 
well  to  be  intolerant.  He  could  have  done 
nothino;  less,  and  have  remained  a  true  man.  His 
intolerance  consisted  simply  in  his  carrying  out 
unflinchingly  the  only  principles  upon  which  a 
reformation  worthy  of  the  name  could  have  been 
achieved  in  Scotland. 

His  Presbyterianism  was  not  derived  from  Gen- 
eva. He  did  not  learn  it  from  John  Calvin. 
He  found  it  where  Ulrich  Zwinglius  found  his 
Presbyterianism — ^in  his  Greek  Testament.  He 
made  the  discovery  when  he  was  teaching  his 
"■  bairns "  at  Langniddrie.  His  views  on  this 
subject  were  fully  matured  when  he  was  in  Eng- 
land, before  he  had  ever  seen  Calvin.  And  so 
strong  were  his  convictions  on  the  subject  that 
the  offer  of  a  bishopric  could  not  tempt  him  to 
modify  his  policy  in  the  slightest.  He  and  those 
who  aided  him  in  preparing  the  Book  of  Disci- 
pline, as  Row  said,  "  took  not  their  example  from 
any  Kirk  in  the  world — no,  not  from  Geneva — 
but  drew  their  plan  from  the  sacred  Scriptures." 
Knox,  therefore,  could  make  no  compromise  with 
i:>opery  without  a  total  betrayal  of  principles  in 
defence  of  which  he  counted  not  his  life  dear 
unto  him. 

And  this  Presbyterian  system  of  doctrine  and 
government  is  the    strongest  and   safest  defence 


JOHN  KNOX.  113 

against  popery  which  has  ever  been  reared. 
Knox  detected  the  weakness  of  the  English  Eef- 
ormation.  Events  have  amply  justified  his  fears 
and  vindicated  his  views.  The  Anglican  Church 
has,  in  a  measure  at  least,  become  a  training- 
camp  for  the  papacy.  In  the  great  reaction 
against  the  Eeformation  which  was  directed  by  the 
Jesuits,  Presbyterianism  saved  Protestantism.  It 
formed  a  bulwark  against  which  the  maddened 
waves  beat  and  dashed  and  broke  in  vain.  Had 
Knox  faltered  in  Scotland,  Protestantism  would 
have  been  swept  from  England  as  the  whirlwind 
sweeps  dry  leaves  from  the  highway. 

The  time  may  not  be  far  distant  when  the  de- 
cisive struggle  will  be  between  the  armies  of 
Antichrist  and  the  compact  and  serried  hosts 
of  this  our  beloved  Presbyterianism.  Contem- 
plating, therefore,  the  life  of  Knox,  one  of  the 
grandest  ever  lived  on  this  footstool  of  God,  and 
catching  inspiration  and  enthusiasm  from  our 
theme,  let  us  close  up  our  ranks  and  stand  firm, 
ready  to  repel  assault  or  to  charge  to  victory. 


10* 


Presbyterianism  in  Philadelphia. 


BY  THE 


Kev.  EGBERT  M.  PATTERSON, 

PASTOR   OF    THE   SOUTH    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH,    PHILADELPHIA. 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA. 


I.  PKOPHECY  AND  FULFILLMENT. 

IN  the  year  1702  a  missionary  of  the  English 
"  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in 
Foreign  Parts,"  writing  from  Burlington,  New 
Jersey,  said :  "  The  Presbyterians  here  come  a 
great  way  to  lay  hands  on  one  another ;  but,  after 
all,  I  think  they  had  as  good  stay  at  home  for  all 
the  good  they  do.  In  Philadelphia  one  pretends 
to  be  a  Presbyterian,  and  has  a  congregation  to 
which  he  preaches." 

In  the  following  year  another  missionary  of 
the  same  society  journalized  in  this  city  a  fact  and 
a  prediction :  "  They  have  here  a  Presbyterian 
meeting  and  minister,  one  called  Andrews ;  but 
they  are  not  like  to  iricrease  hei^e^ 

A  truer  and  more  potential  prophet  declared  to 
the  little  church  and  its  angel :  "  Behold  !  I  have 
set  before  thee  an  open  door ;  and  no  man  can 
shut  it."  Therefore,  Presbyterians  have  had  such 
an  "increase"  that  they  are  now  the  strongest 
religious  denomination  in  the  city,  and  Philadel- 

117 


118  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

phia  is  the  largest  Presbyterian  city  in  the  United 
States. 

There  are  here  three  ecclesiastical  organizations 
which  are  Presbyterian  in  name  as  well  as  in 
fact — the  one  w^hich  for  facility  of  designation, 
we  call  the  Reunited  (the  late  Old  and  New 
School,  now  happily  in  one)  branch,  the  United, 
and  the  Reformed  (Synod  and  General  Synod). 
Their  latest  returns  sum  up  as  follows :  The  Re- 
united, 95  ministers,  69  congregations,  19,365 
communicants,  23,833  Sabbath-school  members, 
and  $992,777  raised  last  year  for  congregational 
and  other  purposes,  and  reported  to  their  Sessions ; 
the  United,  10  ministers,  11  congregations,  2759 
communicants,  2171  Sabbath-school  members, 
and  $49,563  raised  and  reported  ;  the  Reformed, 
10  ministers,  12  congregations,  3439  communi- 
cants, over  1000  Sabbath -school  members,  and 
$46,517  reported.*  The  aggregate  of  the  three 
are,  115  ministers  (80  of  whom  are  Pastors), 
92  congregations,  25,563  communicants,  over 
26,900  Sabbath-school  members,  and  $1,089,- 
000  contributed  last  year.  They  have  church- 
edifices  which  will  seat  over  66,000  persons.  In 
addition  to  these  buildings,  the  Reunited  branch 
opens  to-day  to  the  public  a  most  capacious  and 

*  The  statistics  for  the  Reformed  branch  are  incomplete  and 
below  the  real  figures.  They  could  not  be  fully  obtained  for  all 
the  congregations. 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.       119 

complete  structure  for  its  Board  of  Publication, 
which  is  one  of  the  most  imposing  ornaments  of 
Chestnut  street,  and  which  is  to  be  the  central  sun 
whence  are  perpetually  to  flow  the  rays  of  truth 
for  the  Presbyterian  illumination  of  the  country. 
It  has  an  Hospital,  on  land  conveyed  by  one  who 
was  among  the  most  active  of  its  ministers,  mu- 
nificently endowed  at  its  commencement  by  one 
of  its  largest-hearted  laymen,  and  managed  by  a 
Board  of  Trustees  at  whose  head  is  one  of  the 
most  zealous  and  eminent  of  its  living  servants. 
And  it  will  shortly  have  a  Home,  the  foundation 
of  which  has  been  laid  by  one  of  its  ministering 
women,  for  the  aged  and  destitute  of  her  own  sex. 

There  is  also  in  the  city  an  Independent  Pres- 
byterian church  which  has  been,  and  is,  a  great 
power  for  Christ,  (the  Bev.  John  Chambers'.) 

Our  view,  to  be  complete,  should  also  include 
two  other  denominations  which  are  not  called 
Presbyterian,  but  which  have  doctrinal  symbols 
that  are  Calvinistic  and  forms  of  government 
that  are  Presbyterian,  viz.,  the  Dutch  Beformed 
and  German  Beformed.  They  have  17  ministers, 
17  churches,  at  least  4794  communicants,  and 
4572  Sabbath-school  members ;  and  they  re- 
ported last  year,  the  Dutch,  for  congregational  and 
benevolent  purposes,  $27,107,  and  the  German, 
$6,288  for  benevolent  objects  alone. 

The  full  Presbyterian  strength  of  the  munici- 


120  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

pality  exhibits,  therefore,  133  ministers,  109 
congregations,  over  30,300  communicants,  over 
31,500  Sabbath-school  members,  and  $1,122,252 
raised  and  reported  last  year.  The  valuation  of 
their  churcli  properties  cannot  be  less  than  six 
millions  of  dollars."^ 

The  history  of  the  "  increase"  from  "  a  Presbyte- 
rian meeting  and  minister,  *  one  called  Andrews,'  " 
in  1702,  to  this  imposing  array  of  1872,  would 
make  a  volume  of  the  deepest  instruction  and 
most  thrilling  interest.  Disjointed  articles  and 
sketches  of  a  few  particuLar  congregations  have 
appeared,  but  no  history  of  the  one  progressive 
Presbyterian  movement  has  been  written.  All 
that  can  be  done  in  this  paper  is,  as  from  an  ex- 
alted position,  to  take  a  bird's-eye  view  of  it. 

II.  THE  BEGINNINCx  OF  THE  CITY  AND  CHURCH. 

Philadelphia  was  founded  in  1682.  Settlements 
in  its  neighborhood,  and  within  the  limits  of  what 
is  now  the  city,  had  been  made  before  William 
Penn  received  the  grant  of  the  Province ;  by 
Friends  in  Shackamaxon,  or  Kensington,  and  by 
Lutheran  Swedes  in  Southwark.  But  when  Penn 
arrived,  in  1682,  he  found  only  eight  or  ten  caves 

*  "  The  eccentric  General  Lee  was  buried  in  Christ  Church 
ground.  '  He  wished  not  to  lie  within  a  mile  of  Presbyterian 
ground,  as  too  bad  company.'  "  (Watson's  Annals. )  His  bones 
could  not  find  a  quiet  resting-place  now — Presbyterian  churches 
are  too  abundant  here  ! 


PRESBYTERfANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.        121 

dug  on  the  banks  of  the  Dehiware,  and  one  hous6 
at  what  is  now  Front  and  Dock  streets. 

There  is  a  tradition  that  tlie  great  founder  of 
the  city  preached  the  first  sermon  that  was  heard 
within  its  bounds. 

Not  only  were  the  Friends  the  predominant 
religious  society  at  the  outset,  but  the  members 
of  other  persuasions  united  with  them  in  worship. 
In  1684,  when  the  town  contained  not  a  thousand 
inhabitants,  the  Friends'  meeting,  which  was  the 
only  one  in  existence,  would  number  eight  hun- 
dred persons,  a  large  proportion,  of  course,  com- 
ing from  the  country. 

But  as  early  as  1691  serious  dissensions  broke 
out  in  the  Society.  George  Keith,  a  Scotchman, 
a  teacher  in  the  Friends'  School  and  a  member 
of  their  Meeting,  raised  a  dividing  agitation  by 
the  promulgation  of  views  for  which  he  was  ex- 
pelled from  the  Society.  The  immediate  effect 
of  this  was  to  give  a  great  impulse  to  Ej^iscopacy. 
Keith  became  a  clergyman  in  the  Church  of 
England,  and  drew  large  numbers  with  him  into 
that  organization.  Taking  advantage  of  this, 
"  the  Society  for  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel 
in  Foreign  Parts,"  which  was  organized  in  Eng- 
land, in  1701,  not  especially  for  work  among  the 
heathen,  but,  as  Bishop  Wilberforce  declares,  to 
spread  Episcopacy  among  the  colonists,  made  the 

greatest  efforts  to  build  up  that  sect  here. 
11 


122  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

There  were,  however,  a  few  of  the  early  settlers 
in  Philadelphia  whose  preferences  were  for  other 
forms  of  Protestantism — not  many  indeed ;  the 
earliest  mention  is  of  "  nine  Baptists  and  a  few 
Independents  in  the  town."  They  w^ere  shaken 
off  and  shaken  together  into  their  own  organiza- 
tions by  the  dissensions  which  split  the  Friends' 
Meeting. 

The  first  known  Presbyterian  minister  in  the 
colonies  was  the  Pev.  Francis  Makemie.  A  native 
of  Ireland,  he  came  to  America  soon  after  his 
licensure  in  1681,  and  settled  in  Maryland. 
There  he  founded  the  churches  of  Pehoboth  and 
Snow  Hill ;  and  thence,  as  a  centre,  he  did  a  large 
amount  of  missionary  w^ork  in  the  other  colonies. 
In  one  of  his  tours  he  visited  Philadelphia,  in 
1692,  while  it  was  in  its  highest  state  of  religious 
fermentation;  and  it  is  probable  that  he  then 
gathered  together  the  little  band  of  Presbyte- 
rians. Certain  it  is  that  in  1697  they  had  been 
organized  into  a  congregation,  and  in  alternation 
with  the  Baptists  and  Congregationalists  were 
meeting  in  a  frame  building,  which  was  called 
the  ''  Barbadoes  Lot  Store,"  on  the  north-west 
corner  of  Second  and  Chestnut  Streets.  In  that 
year,  Watson  says,  the  town  contained  a  "  Swedish 
Lutheran  Church,  Episcopal,  Baptist,  Presbyte- 
rian and  two  Quaker,  one  of  them  being  George 
Keith's  separation." 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.       123 

In  the  autumn  of  1698,  Mr.  Jedediali  An- 
drews, a  young  Licentiate  from  Massachusetts, 
commenced  to  preach  to  the  Presbyterians.  The 
position  socially  was  not  encouraging,  for  a  con- 
temporary wrote  in  that  year,  "  The  Church  of 
England  and  the  Quakers  bear  equal  share  in  the 
government."  The  little  congregation  was  treated 
with  contempt  by  the  adherents  of  the  Anglican 
Church,  which  was  endeavoring  to  establish  itself 
as  the  Church  of  the  colony. 

Mr.  Andrews  was  ordained  to  the  work  of  the 
ministry  and  installed  as  pastor  of  the  congrega- 
tion in  1701.  That  was  also  the  year  in  which 
Philadelphia  received  its  charter  as  a  city,  with 
Edward  Shippen  for  its  mayor.  The  history  of 
the  city  of  Philadelphia,  and  the  history  of  Pres- 
byterian pastorates  in  it,  commence  together. 

The  population  of  the  place  then  consisted  of 
five  thousand  inhabitants,  living  in  seven  hun- 
dred houses,  which  lay  snugly  and  compactly  be- 
tween the  Delaware  Piver  and  Dock  Creek,  now 
Dock  Street,  from  the  mouth  of  the  latter  up  to 
Market  Street. 

There  is  a  record  of  the  ordination,  in  1704,  of 
two  elders,  one  of  whom  was  John  Snowdon. 

In  the  same  year  the  congregation  erected  a 
frame  church  on  the  corner  of  Bank  Street  and 
Buttonwood,  now  Market  Street.  This  was  called 
"The  Old  Buttonwood  Church,"  because  of  the 


124  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

buttODAVood  trees  of  large  dimensions  which  stood 
around  it.  It  was  enlarged  in  1729,  rebuilt  in 
1793  in  Grecian  style,  and  on  account  of  the  en- 
croachments of  business  taken  down  in  1820, 
w^hen  the  present  church  at  Washington  Square 
was  constructed. 

That  old  frame  building  was  probably  the  scene 
of  the  organization  of  our  oi'iginal  American 
Presbytery,  whose  first  recorded  roll  contains  the 
names  of  four  ministers  and  four  ruling  elders. 
How  enraptured  must  those  glorified  souls  be  as 
they  now  look  down  upon  our  land  and  behold, 
in  j)lace  of  their  one  little  Presbytery,  542  Pres- 
byteries and  Classes,  with  8481  preachers  of  the 
Gospel,  9305  congregations  and  966,313  commu- 
nicants !  * 

Here  let  us  pause  to  pay  a  tribute  to  William 
Penn  and  his  associates  and  successors.  Phila- 
delj^hia  was  the  cradle  of  American  organized 
Presbyterianism.  Here  were  formed  its  first 
Presbytery,  probably  in  1705  or  1706,  its  first 
Synod  in  1717,  and  its  fii^t  General  Assembly  in 
1789.  Here  too  met  all  the  Assemblies  of  the 
now  Keunited  Church,  except  three,  down  to  the 
year  1834.  And  it  is  under  the  laws  of  Penn- 
sylvania that  the  trustees  of  our  supreme  body 
are  incorporated.      Attention  has  not,  however, 

*  These  figures  are  for  1870.     They  were  incomplete  then,  and 
are  below  the  aggregates  now. 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.      125 

been  pointedly  called  to  the  fact  that  there  was 
no  other  city  in  the  colonies  in  which  our  eccle- 
siastical courts  could  have  been  freely  constituted 
and  conducted.  It  was  in  1707,  subsequent  to 
the  organization  of  the  Presbytery,  that  our 
Makemie  was  imprisoned  by  Lord  Cornbury,  in 
New  York,  as  a  ''strolling  preacher,"  so  that  he 
might  not  spread  our  "pernicious  doctrines!" 
Makemie  did  not  reach  the  Presbytery  that  year 
until  the  second  day  of  its  session,  and  he  left  it 
to  go  to  New  York  to  staud  trial  for  the  crime 
of  preaching  the  Gospel  without  a  license  from 
the  Anglican  lord  !  In  the  colony  of  New  York, 
too,  "  up  to  the  very  moment  of  the  Declaration 
of  Indejiendence,  Presbyterians  were  denied  a 
charter  of  incorporation."  In  Virginia,  in  Mary- 
land after  1689,  in  Carolina  after  1703,  they  were 
treated  with  intolerance.  But  Penn  came  hither, 
in  his  own  words,  "  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a 
free  colony  for  all  mankind."  He  was  intrigued 
against  by  "  the  hot  church  party,"  as  he  styled 
them.  They  even  sought  at  one  time  to  have 
the  Province  transferred  to  the  jurisdiction  of 
Cornbury,  who  w^ould  doubtless  have  treated  Mr. 
Andrews  as  a  "strolling  preacher,"  and  have 
ti2:htened  the  bands  around  his  conorcfijation  as  a 
dissenting  conventicle.  But  they  failed.  Penn's 
"free  colony"  was  preserved,  and,  therefore,  be- 
longs to  this  city  the  ^^eculiar  honor  of  having 
11 « 


126  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

cradled  our  Church  in  its  infancy.  Philadelphia 
Presbyterians,  while  differing  from  William 
Penn's  peculiarities,  have  especial  reasons  to 
venerate  his  name. 


III.  THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  LAST  CENTURY. 
The  growth  of  the  city  during  the  first  half 
of  the  last  century  was  slow.  In  1749,  after  an 
existence  of  67  years,  it  contained  only  2076 
houses  and  15,000  people,  and  Fourth  street  Avas 
its  western  limit.  Nor  was  the  j^rogress  of  our 
Church  rapid.  In  1705  there  were  five  adult 
baptisms  in  it,  and  four  in  1706.*  The  erection 
of  the  church  building  had  a  popular  influence. 
The  supercilious  English  missionary  who  in  1702 
had  spoken  with  such  contemj^t  of  Mr.  Andrews' 
ordination,  and  thought  Presbyterians  "  had  as 
good  stay  at  home  for  all  the  good  they  do,"  became 
alarmed  in  1705.  He  then  wrote  :  ''  There  is  a 
new  meeting-house  built  for  Andrew^s,  and  almost 
finished,  which,  I  am  afraid,  will  draw  away  a 
great  part  of  the  church,  if  there  be  not  the 
greatest  care  taken  of  it."  It  was  necessary  to  en- 
large that  building  in  1729.  Mr.  Andrew^s,  w^ho 
did  a  great  deal  of  itinerant  missionary  work 
through  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania,  obtained 

*  The  reported  additions  in  the  various  branches,  during  the 
past  year,  to  the  Communion  Table  on  profession,  were  1998, 
and  the  baptisms  of  infants  2065,  and  of  adults  394. 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.       127 

in  1734  a  colleague  in  his  pastoral  office.  In 
1736  a  division  of  sentiment  as  to  who  should  be 
associated  with  him  led  to  the  formation  of 
another  church,  under  the  Rev.  Kobert  Cross, 
which,  *  however,  in  the  subsequent  year,  was  re- 
united to  the  First,  under  the  joint  pastoral  care  of 
Messrs.  Andrews  and  Cross.  But  financially  the 
congregation  continued  to  be  exceedingly  weak. 
A  contribution  of  £30  was  received  by  the  synod, 
in  1714,  from  the  Rev.  Thomas  Reynolds,  of 
London,  for  the  use  of  ministers  in  this  country. 
It  was  divided  among  the  three  "  most  needy  " 
congregations ;  and  one  of  them  was  the  Phila- 
delphia church.  In  1737  it  had  also  to  receive 
£50  from  the  synod  to  enable  it  to  purchase  a 
graveyard. 

Moi'eover,  the  church  was  agitated  by  a  severe 
internal  commotion.  The  Rev.  Samuel  Hemphill 
came  from  Ireland  to  Philadelphia  in"l734.  He 
brou«:ht  with  hnn  the  Arian  and  free-thin  kin  ij: 
sentiments  that  had  commenced  to  work  with 
their  deadly  leaven  in  the  Irish  Presbyterian 
Church,  and  which  were  not  fully  cast  out  of  that 
body  until  Henry  Cooke  arose  in  this  century  as 
the  champion  of  orthodoxy.  Mr.  Andrews  had 
already  applied  for  an  assistant.  In  ignorance  of 
Mr.  Hemphill's  erroneous  views,  he  invited  him 
to  occupy  his  pulpit  a  part  of  each  Sabbath.  But 
the  man's  poisonous  utterances  soon  broke  forth. 


128  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

The  "  free-thinkers,  deists,  and  in  general  the 
worst  part  of  the  community,  flocked  to  hear  him, 
while  the  better  part  of  the  congregation  stayed 
away."  Mr.  Andrews  felt  bound  to  prosecute 
him  before  the  synod.  The  charges  were  sus- 
tained, and  Mr.  Hemphill  was  suspended.  But 
the  trial  was  an  earthquake  both  in  the  church 
and  the  city.  Members  of  the  other  denomina- 
tions and  the  outside  world  mingled  in  the  con- 
troversy. A  Quakeress  appeared  before  the  syn- 
odical  commission  with  a  claim  to  be  heard  in  fa- 
vor of  Mr.  HemphilL  Benjamin  Franklin  wrote 
in  his  newspaper,  and  even  issued  pamphlets,  in 
defence  of  the  errorist.  But  the  discovery  of  pla- 
giarism did  for  him  with  the  world  what  the 
proof  of  heresy  would  not  do.  Though  he  could 
preach  fluently,  he  could  not  write.  Some  of  the 
sermons  which  had  been  so  attractive  to  his  ad- 
mirers were  found  in  the  published  works  of 
the  Arians,  Dr.  Clarke  and  Dr.  James  Foster. 
"  This,  like  a  frost,  nipped  his  popularity,  and  his 
adherents  fell  off  like  withered  leaves  at  once." 
But  the  agitation  was  trying  to  Mr.  Andrews. 
It  wearied  him,  and  almost  drove  him  from  the 
field.  And  it  must  have  been  a  staggering  blow 
to  the  church  for  a  while. 

Our  cause,  however,  received  a  decided  impulse 
toward  the  middle  of  the  century  by  a  large  im- 
migration, and  especially  by  the   wonderful  re- 


PRESBYTEBIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.       129 

vival  which  accompanied  the  labors  of  the  cele- 
brated George  Whitefield. 

"  The  influx  from  abroad  from  1718  to  1740  was 
wholly  Protestant  and  largely  Presbyterian.  .  .  . 
^  In  September,  1736,  one  thousand  families  sailed 
from  Belfast.  .  .  .  On  the  9th  of  that  month  one 
hundred  Presbyterians  from  Ireland  arrived  at 
Philadelphia."  Ireland  thereby  lost,  and  Phila- 
delphia gained,  some  of  its  best  inhabitants.  The 
British  government  was  made  uneasy  by  the  ex- 
odus. The  little  Philadelphia  church  was  glad- 
dened by  the  reception  of  a  portion  of  it. 

The  state  of  religion  in  the  colonies,  as  well  as 
in  the  mother  country,  had  been  distressingly 
low.  But  under  the  preaching  of  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards and  the  Tennents,  and  other  kindred 
spirits,  a  remarkable  quickening  had  commenced 
even  before  the  visit  of  Whitefield.  His  grand 
gospel  eloquence,  however,  greatly  stimulated  and 
extended  it. 

His  jDrogress  in  the  colonies  was  a  triumphal 
march.  Processions  of  horsemen  escorted  him. 
Judges  suspended  their  courts  when  he  preached. 
Immense  crowds,  in  churches  and  in  fields,  hung 
upon  his  lips.  Dr.  Stevens,  in  his  "  History  of 
Methodism,"  calls  him  "  the  greatest  preacher,  it 
is  probable,  in  popular  eloquence,  of  all  the 
Christian  ages."  He  was  in  this  city,  on  his 
first  visit,  less  than  a  month,  but  he  shook  it  to 


130  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

its  foundations  and  agitated  the  surrounding 
country.  The  population  of  tlio  city  was  less 
than  15,000.  Congregations  of  10,000,  of  course 
drawn  from  the  country  as  well  as  from  the 
city,  gathered  around  the  j)i'eacher  on  "  Society 
Hill."  It  is  Benjamjn  Franklin's  testimony  that, 
"  from  being  thoughtless  or  indifferent  about  re- 
ligion, it  seemed  as  if  all  the  world  were  growing 
religious,  so  that  one  could  not  walk  through  the 
streets  of  an  evening  without  hearing  Psalms  sung 
in  different  families  in  every  street."  No  books 
sold  but  the  religious,  and  such  was  the  general 
conversation.  Dancing-schools  were  discontin- 
ued ;  balls  and  concerts  were  given  up.  For  a  year 
after,  there  continued  to  be  a  daily  public  re- 
ligious service,  and  three  services  on  the  Sabbath. 
Twenty-six  associations  for  prayer  were  formed. 

The  moral  and  religious  improvement  which 
accompanied  Whitefield  was  admitted,  but  the 
latitudinarians  of  the  day  censured  him  for  his 
affinity  with  ''  the  hot-headed  predestinarians." 
Kalm,  a  contemporary  Swedish  traveler,  says  that 
"  the  genuine  Calvinism  of  Whitefield  and  Ten- 
nent,  and  their  ardent  zeal  for  vital,  j)ractical 
godliness,  was  called  *  New  Light.' " 

This  decided  Calvinism  of  the  flying  evangel- 
ist brought  him  into  fervent  symj^athy  with  the 
Presbyterians  who  had  already  been  quickened; 
and  they  were  further   quickened  through  him. 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.       131 

Kalm  said  in  1751,  "  The  proselytes  of  this  man, 
or  the  ^  New  Lights,'  are  at  present  merely  a  sect 
of  Presbyterians."  The  two  pastors  of  the  First 
church  condemned  some  of  his  peculiarities  and 
measures  (as  both  he  and  Gilbert  Tennent  them- 
selves did  in  their  later  days),  and  they  did  not 
sufficiently  estimate  the  great  work  the  Lord  was 
doing  by  him ;  nevertheless,  they  j)ermitted  him 
to  preach  in  their  building. 

But  serious  differences  accompanied  the  re- 
vival. Sad  dissensions  on  presbyterial  and  syn- 
odical  powers  and  ministerial  qualifications  and 
modes  of  examination,  after  agitating  the  synod 
for  years,  rent  it  in  1741.  On  the  first  of  June 
in  that  year,  in  that  "  Old  Buttonwood  Church," 
and  amid  great  excitement,  the  little  body  which 
represented  our  whole  denomination  in  America 
(only  twenty-six  ministei*s  and  eighteen  elders 
were  present)  was  torn  asunder  into  two  frag- 
ments. They  were  both  made  up  of  as  sincere 
and  earnest  Christians  as  the  Church  has  ever 
had.  They  were  all  zealous  for  the  truth,  and 
there  was  really  no  fundamental  difference  be- 
tween them.  But  they  misunderstood  each  other 
and  exaggerated  their  differences,  and  thought 
for  a  little  while  that  they  could  not  walk  to- 
gether. Having  no  religious  papers,  they  carried 
their  controversy  into  the  secular  press.  Frank- 
lin's Gazette  became  the  vehicle  of  sharp  and 


132  THE   TERCENTENARY. 

acrimonious  attacks  on  each  other,  for  which  the 
writers,  in  a  few  short  years,  were  bitterly  peni- 
tent. The  dissensions  through  the  country  were 
such  as  would  most  profoundly  humble  Christians 
if  they  were  to  happen  now.  The  people  of  Phila- 
delphia were  especially  agitated.  All  this,  united 
with  the  increase  of  population  and  the  great  ad- 
dition to  the  number  of  professing  Christians, 
necessitated  the  formation  of  a  new  congregation. 
The  Second  church  was,  therefore,  organized  in 
1743,  under  the  pastoral  care  of  the  Rev.  Gilbert 
Tennent,  "the  terrible  and  searching  preacher" 
of  the  day,  of  one  of  whose  discourses  even 
Whitefield  said,  "  Never  before  heard  I  such  a 
searching  sermon." 

The  first  j)lace  of  worship  of  the  new  congre- 
gation was  "  The  ^  Great  House,'  in  the  western 
part  of  the  town^''  on  Fourth  street  below  Arch, 
which  had  been  erected  the  preceding  year, 
through  Whitefield 's  special  efforts,  as  a  grand 
preaching  station  for  itinerants,  but  which, 
through  the  shortness  of  subscriptions  to  pay  for 
it,  failed  of  its  object,  and  in  1750  became  the 
"  Old  Academy,"  in  1759  the  College  of  Phila- 
delj)hia,  and  in  1779  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. But  the  new  congregation,  through  the 
enthusiastic  efforts  of  their  pastor,  built,  and  in 
1750  occupied,  "  a  spacious  and  very  expensive 
church  edifice"  on  the  north-west  corner  of  Third 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.       133 

and  Arch  streets.     The  chosen  site  was  a  farm, 
"  Dr.  Hiirs  pasture,"  as  it  was  called.     Mr.  Ten- 
nent  himself  lived  "  out  in  the  country,"  at  what 
is  now  Fourth  and  Wood  streets.     The  city  had 
then  about  fifteen  thousand  inhabitants;  and  five 
years  later  Fifth  street  was  its  western  extremity. 
Before  the  erection  of  the  new  church,  Mr. 
Andrews,  the  senior  pastor  of  the  first  congrega- 
tion, had  been   called   away  from  the  scene  of 
labor,   of   strife    and    of   temptation.      Born    in 
Massachusetts  in  1679,  and  graduated  at  Harvard 
in  1694,  he  had  come  to  Philadelphia  when  he 
was  twenty-four  years  of  age.     If  Dr.  Franklin's 
opinion  is  to  be  depended  upon,  he  was  not  an 
attractive  preacher.     But  Dr.  Franklin  was  loose 
in    his    religious   views.      Hemphill,  the  Arian 
plagiarist,  was  his  fiivorite,  and  when  his  voice 
was  silenced  in  the  church,  the  philosopher  ceased 
to  attend   its  services.     But  whatever  may  have 
been  the  jxilpit  powers  of  the  first  Philadelphia 
pastor,  he  was  abundant  in  labors.     In  addition 
to  the  performance  of  tlie  ministerial  work  in  his 
own  congregation,  he  traveled  freely  as  an  evan- 
gelist through  the  surrounding  country.     He  was, 
moreover,  until  very  near  his   death,  recording 
clerk  both  of  the  presbytery  and  of  the  synod, 
of  which  latter  body  he  was  also  the  first  mode- 
rator.     He   was  especially  eminent  as  a  peace- 
maker.    In  this  ofifice  he  endeavored  to  deal  with 

12 


134  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

his  Old  and  New  Side  brethren,  with  neither  of 
whom  he  seems  heartily  to  have  sympathized  at 
the  outset.  But  when  the  schism  was  complete, 
he  went  with  the  Old  Side.  His  death  took  place 
six  years  afterward,  in  1747,  but  not  before  a 
cloud  which  fell  upon  him  had  been  removed  by 
his  humble  penitence. 

His  colleague  from  1737,  the  Kev.  Robert 
Cross,  was  the  leader  of  the  Old  Side,  and  jDroba- 
bly  the  author  of  the  celebrated  *^  Protestation" 
which  brought  matters  to  a  crisis  in  the  synod. 
He  had  been  born  in  Ire,land  in  1689,  and  had 
come  to  this  country  when  he  was  twenty-eight 
years  of  age.  He  was  first  settled  in  New.Castle 
from  1719  to  1723,  when  he  removed  to  Jamaica, 
L.  I.  In  that  field  he  won  an  excellent  reputa- 
tion, and  his  labors  were  blessed  with  a  precious 
revival  of  religion.  In  1734,  before  the  Hemp- 
hill difficulty  arose,  a  majority  of  the  church  in 
Philadelphia  desired  to  settle  him  as  associate 
pastor;  but  a  strong  minority  were  in  favor  of 
the  Hev.  Jonathan  Dickinson.  The  synod, 
therefore,  refused  to  translate  him.  The  conse- 
quence was  that  his  supporters  were  the  next  year 
erected  into  a  separate  congregation,  and  in  1736 
they  made  out  for  him  an  independent  call.  This 
the  synod  unanimously  approved  in  1737,  and  he 
left  Jamaica.  The  struggle  between  the  two 
places  for  his  services  had  been  great  and  lon^s: 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.       135 

continued.  A  celebrated  Quakeress  said  of  liini; 
what  has  substantially  been  said  of  many  since 
his  day,  "  His  people  almost  adored  him,  and  im- 
poverished themselves  to  equal  the  sum  offered 
him  in  the  city;  but  failing  in  this,  they  lost  him." 
Before  the  time  for  his  installation  arrived  the 
two  congregations  were  happily  reunited,  and  he 
was  settled  with  Mr.  Andrews  over  the  one 
church. 

After  the  death  of  Mr.  Andrews,  in  1747,  Mr. 
Cross  continued  to  be  the  only  pastor  of  the  First 
church  until  1752.  Then  the  Kev.  Francis 
Alison  was  associated  with  him.  Mr.  Alison 
had  been  born  in  Ireland  in  1705.  He  was, 
therefore,  forty-seven  years  of  age  when  he  set- 
tled in  Philadelphia,  and  he  lived  and  labored 
here  in  the  church  and  in  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania for  twenty-seven  years,  until  his  death,  in 
1779,  in  the  seventy-fourth  year  of  his  age.  He 
was  eminent  not  only  as  a  scholar  and  an  educa- 
tor, but  as  a  man  of  practical  benevolence  in  the 
church,  a  public-spirited  citizen  in  the  State  and 
a  powerful  supporter  of  religious  freedom. 

The  two  colleagues  were  very  pronounced  in 
the  movements  which  led  to  the  division  of  the 
synod.  But  they  were  also  active  in  the  heal- 
ing of  the  schism  in  1758.  Dr.  Alison  preached 
a  sermon  before  the  two  synods  on  May  24th  of 
that  year,  as  the  union  was  being  consummated. 


136  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

The  discourse  was  published  under  the  title, 
"  Peace  and  union  recommended."  At  the 
second  session  of  the  reunited  body,  in  1759, 
Mr.  Cross  was  chosen  moderator,  but  "  on  account 
of  his  age  and  bodily  infirmity  he  declined  the 
honor."  He  was  then  sevent}^  years  of  age.  For 
the  same  reason,  we  suppose,  in  the  following 
month,  on  the  22d  of  June,  he  resigned  his 
pastoral  charge.  He  lived,  however,  eight  years 
longer,  dying  in  1766.  *'  He  excelled  in  pru- 
dence and  gravity  and  a  general  deportment,  was 
esteemed  for  his  learned  acquaintance  with  the 
holy  Scriptures,  and  long  accounted  one  of  the 
most  respectable  ministers  in  the  province." 

Mr.  Tennent  was  still  pastor  of  the  Second 
church  when  the  reunion  was  accomplished.  He 
had  done  more  than  any  other  man  to  produce 
the  schism :  it  is  to  his  honor  that,  Avhen  con- 
vinced of  his  error,  he  labored  hard  to  correct  it. 
In  him  a  true,  fervent  piety  was  engrafted  upon 
an  Irish  nature  which  was  naturally  hot,  impul- 
sive and  inclined  to  be  censorious  and  overbear- 
ing. Therein  lay  his  power  under  the  Spirit  of 
God,  and  also  his  weakness.  At  first  without  any 
sjDCcial  spirituality  as  a  pastor,  he  was,  through  a 
sharp  attack  of  sickness,  profoundly  humbled 
before  God.  Thenceforward  he  was  unwearied  in 
his  labors,  persistent  in  purpose  and  tremendously 
powerful  in  preaching.     Traveling  with  White- 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.       137 

field  to  Boston,  the  effects  of  his  sermons  rivaled 
those  which  attended  the  eloquent  evangelist. 
But  he  misjudged  his  brethren  who  were  not  at 
one  with  him  on  every  point,  and  fell  into  the  prev- 
alent error  of  setting  up  the  personal  peculiarities 
of  his  own  religious  experience  as  the  standard 
by  which  they  were  to  be  judged.  A  wonderful 
change,  however,  followed  his  settlement  in  the 
city.  It  is  said  that  his  preaching  was  not  as 
forcible  and  animated  as  it  had  been,  and  no  such 
results  accompanied  it  as  had  been  witnessed  else- 
where. But  a  sweet  charity  grew  ujoon  him. 
His  controversial  spirit  died  out.  Although  he 
had  reached  the  age  when  men's  habits  of  mind 
and  of  action  are  generally  supposed  to  be  un- 
changeably formed  (he  was  forty  years  of  age 
when  he  came  to  Philadelphia,  having  been  born 
in  Ireland  in  1703),  he  exhibited  a  great  trans- 
formation of  character.  He  therefore  earnestly 
labored  for  the  reunion  of  the  two  synods,  and  on 
the  accomplishment  of  the  measure  he  was  com- 
plimented by  being  chosen  the  first  moderator  of 
the  reunited  body.  He  lived  for  six  years  longei", 
and  died  while  still  pastor  of  the  Second  church, 
in  1764,  though  the  last  three  years  of  his  life 
were  years  of  great  bodily  infirmity  and  weak- 
ness. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  First  church,  which  ad- 
hered to  the  Old  Side  in  the  division,  continued 

12  * 


138  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

to  grow,  largely  through  immigration  from  Scot- 
land and  Ireland,  after  the  formation  of  the  Sec- 
ond, which  was  in  connection  with  the  New  Side. 
In  1759,  the  year  following  the  resignation  of 
Mr.  Cross,  the  Rev.  John  Ewing  was  settled  as 
Dr.  Alison's  colleague.  Mr.  Ewing  was  a  native 
of  Maryland,  where  he  had  been  born  in  1732. 
Two  years  after  his  settlement  a  movement  com- 
menced which  resulted  in  the  completion,  in 
1768,  of  the  Third  church,  at  Fourth  and  Pine, 
"  for  the  benefit  of  inhabitants  down  on  the 
hill." 

"  Down  on  the  hill !"  Philadelphia  was  not 
naturally  the  dead  level  which  it  is  now.  It  Avas 
a  rolling  tract  of  land.  It  rose  in  a  high  bluff 
from  the  Delaware.  Creeks  ran  through  it.  It 
had  its  marshy  spots.  The  site  on  which  the 
present  First  church  was  erected  in  1820  had 
once  been  a  pond. 

The  Third  church  was  at  the  commencement  a 
collegiate  organization  with  the  First.  Hence, 
its  first  pastor,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Aitken,  in  1768, 
alternated  with  Dr.  Alison  and  Mr.  Ewing  in 
supplying  both.  But  in  1771  the  new  congrega- 
tion independently  called  the  Rev.  Geo.  Dufiield 
to  be  their  pastor.  Mr.  Dufiield  had  been  born 
in  Pennsylvania  in  1732,  and  was  settled  in  Car- 
lisle. Althou2:h  the  reunion  had  been  accom- 
plished,  the  fiery  feelings  that  accompanied  the 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.       139 

schism  were  not  entirely  extinguished.  An  earn- 
est revivalist  and  a  popular  preacher,  Mr.  Duf- 
field's  sympathies  had  been  with  the  New  Side. 
In  Mr.  Tennent's  closing  years,  when  he  was  dis- 
abled from  much  of  the  active  work  of  the  pas- 
torate, the  Second  church  twice  called  the  bold 
Carlisle  preacher  to  be  his  associate  pastor.  These 
calls  were  unsuccessful ;  the  one  from  the  Third 
congregation,  at  a  later  day,  prevailed.  But  it 
was  unacce23table  to  the  First  church ;  and  Mr. 
Duffield  commenced  his  ministry  here  in  the  midst 
of  one  of  the  most  remarkable  disturbances  that 
the  church  has  ever  witnessed. 

No  further  progi'ess  in  this  branch  of  our 
Church  during  the  last  century  can  be  chronicled. 
The  revolutionary  troubles  were  brewing.  Their 
immediate  influence,  and  their  subsequent  effects, 
were  depressing  and  destructive  to  religious  in- 
terests. The  remaining  thirty  years  of  the  cen- 
tury passed  without  the  demand  arising  for  in- 
creased church  accommodations. 

Dr.  Ewing  continued  to  be  pastor  of  the  First 
church  until  1802,  when  he  died,  in  the  seventy- 
first  year  of  his  age.  In  1773  he  had  associated 
with  him,  as  assistant,  the  Rev.  Robert  Davidson, 
D.D.,  who  had  been  born  in  Maryland  in  1750, 
and  who  in  this  field,  and  as  professor  in  tlie 
university,  and  afterward  as  vice  president  of 
Dickinson  College,  attained  a  splendid  reputation 


140  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

as  a  linguist  and  a  scientist.     He  died  in  1812, 
while  pastor  of  tlie  church  in  Carlisle. 

In  the  Second  church,  after  Mr.  Tennent's 
death,  the  Rev.  John  Murray  was  settled  for  a 
year.  He  was  followed,  in  1769,  by  the  Rev. 
James  Sproat,  a  native  of  Massachusetts,  where 
he  was  born  in  1722,  and  converted  under  Mr. 
Tennent's  preaching  during  his  New  England 
tour.  He  confined  his  studies  to  theology,  in 
which  he  received  the  doctorate  in  1780,  and  was 
noted  for  his  gift  of  prayer  and  his  eminent  prac- 
tical piety.  The  Rev.  Ashbel  Green  was  asso- 
ciated with  him  in  the  pastorate  in  1787  and 
until  1793,  when  Dr.  Sproat  fell  at  his  post  under 
an  attack  of  the  yellow  fever.  We  have  now 
reached  men  of  eminent  and  widespread  reputa- 
tion in  the  Church  who  have  not  yet  passed  out 
of  the  memory  of  the  present  generation,  and  it 
will  be  sufficient  simply  to  indicate  their  pas- 
torates. Dr.  Green  continued  in  the  Second 
church  until  1812,  having  associated  with  him 
first  the  Rev.  J.  N.  Abeel,  in  1794-5,  and  then 
from  1799  the  Rev.  Jacob  J.  Janeway,  D.D. 
The  successor  of  Dr.  Duffield  in  the  Third  church 
was  the  Rev.  John  Blair  Smith,  D.D.,  from  1791 
to  1795,  and  again,  after  three  years'  absence  as 
president  of  the  newly-founded  Union  College, 
New  York,  from  May  to  August,  1799,  when  he 
was  carried  oif  by  the  yellow  fever. 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.       141 

Concurrent  with  the  events  in  the  one  branch 
which  have  thus  been  narrated  were  the  follow- 
mg :  The  Market  Square  church,  Gerinantown, 
was  organized  as  a  German  Eeformed  congrega- 
tion in  1733.  The  First  German  Eeformed  in 
the  old  city  proper  was  built  in  Race  near  Fourth, 
in  1747.  The  Scots  church  was  founded  in  con- 
nection with  the  Associate  presbytery  in  1750,  and, 
weak  though  it  was,  in  a  few  years  lost  by  a 
secession  of  members  forming  what  is  now  the 
First  United  Presbyterian  church.  The  German 
Eeformed  also  built  the  Frankford  church,  in 
1770.  In  1798  a  little  band  of  Covenanters  com- 
menced to  worship  together,  and  shortly  afterward 
called  as  their  pastor  Rev.  Samuel  B.  Wylie — 
afterward  the  Dr.  Wylie  eminent  as  a  leader  in 
that  branch  of  the  church,  and  as  a  professor  and 
vice  provost  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania ; 
but  they  were  so  few  in  number  that,  even  on  the 
Sabbath  after  the  ordination  of  their  pastor,  in 
1802,  they  met  for  their  preaching  service  in  the 
bedroom  of  one  of  their  members,  not  more  than 
twelve  feet  square,  and  in  that  littla  space  "  tliey 
were  not  crowded." 

IV.  WEAKNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH  SEVENTY  YEARS 

AGO. 

At  the   close  of  the  eighteenth  century  our 
churches  were  gasping  for  breath.    The  population 


142  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

of  the  city  more  tlian  doubled  between  1776  and 
1806.  It  increased  in  those  thirty  years  from  forty 
thousand  to  about  ninety  thousand.  But  it  is 
doubtful  whether  the  Presbyterian  communion 
rolls  were  as  large  in  the  latter  year  as  in  the 
former.  The  new  building  which  the  First 
church  erected  in  1793  contained  one  hundred 
and  sixty-three  pews,  and  could  accommodate 
nine  hundred  persons;  but  in  1801  it  had  only 
ninety  communicants.  In  the  same  year  the 
Second  church,  which  at  its  organization  had  160 
members,  numbered  only  200.  The  Third  church, 
w^hich  had  been  formed  in  1762  with  SO  families, 
had  in  1802  only  165  communicants.  The  three 
entered  this  century  less  than  500  strong  in  a 
population  of  69,408.  The  Frankford  church  in 
1807  had  not  members  enough  to  hold  the  offices 
required  by  law ;  the  number  of  adherents  to  it 
was  only  46  in  30  families. 

Two  comparisons  will  forcibly  suggest  the  weak- 
ness of  our  denomination  at  that  time : 

Albany  has  now  about  the  same  number  of 
inhabitants  (69,423)  that  our  city  had  in  1800; 
but  Albany  has  2379  Presbyterian  communi- 
cants. 

Our  neighboring  city  of  Camden,  through 
which  also  beats  the  blood  that  is  our  life,  con- 
tains 20,000  people,  but  it  has  about  as  many 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.       143 

Presbyterians  as  Philadelphia  liacl  70  years  ago, 
with  three  and  a  half  times  the  population. 

V.  CAUSES  OF  THE   DEPRESSED  CONDITION. 

The  causes  of  this  check  and  decline  were  vari- 
ous. The  rapid  statement  of  them  will  exhibit 
other  important  facts  in  the  history. 

1.  The  seventeen  years'  division  of  the  denomi- 
nation (1741  to  1758)  had  a  specially  prejudicial 
influence  on  the  churches  of  this  city.  This  had 
been  the  centre  of  the  excitement,  and  long  after 
the  wound  of  the  schism  was  healed  its  scar  re- 
mained. Two  presbyteries  of  Philadelphia  con- 
tinued to  exist,  "  composed  severally  of  the  liti- 
gant parties,  and  the  aged  members  on  both  sides 
retained  something  of  the  old  bitter  feelings 
toward  each  other."  There  were  some  very  un- 
pleasant contests  between  the  particular  congre- 
gations. The  members  of  the  First  church  w^ould 
not  aid  the  Second  in  the  collection  of  money  to 
build  the  Third.  The  unhappy  dispute  between 
the  First  and  the  Third,  which  commenced  before 
the  breaking  out  of  the  revolutionary  war,  w^as 
not  settled  for  twenty  years,  and  it  kept  up  a  per- 
sonal alienation  between  Drs.  Ewing  and  Duf- 
field.  Nor  were  there  wanting  internecine  strug- 
gles in  the  congregations  themselves.  Those  who 
are  fed  on  the  genuine  milk  and  strong  meat  of 
Presbyterianism   become  necessarily  men  of  in- 


144  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

tense  convictions.  Priding  themselves  in  their 
strength,  however,  they  have  been  apt  to  array 
their  convictions  too  strongly  against  each  other 
on  personal  questions  and  points  that  touch  not 
the  essentials  of  their  system.  It  is  a  marked 
proof  of  the  divine  origin  of  our  faith  and  order 
that  God,  looking  upon  our  sincerity  and  honesty, 
and  pardoning  our  misdirected  zeal,  has  overruled 
even  our  internal  strifes  to  the  advancement  of 
the  one  great  cause  in  which  we  agree. 

2.  Down  to  the  era  of  the  Hevolution  the  ad- 
herents of  the  Church  of  England,  not  only  in 
other  colonies,  but  in  Pennsylvania,  notwith- 
standing Penn's  liberal  charter,  contended  for 
the  rights  of  an  Establishment. 

Early  in  the  century  George  Keith,  the  author 
of  the  dissension  among  the  Friends,  and  subse- 
quently a  missionary  of  the  English  society, 
traveled  among  the  Friends,  intruding  into  their 
meetings  and  attempting  to  interrupt  their  services 
or  to  speak  at  the  close  of  them ;  and  when  the 
heads  of  meeting  interfered  to  prevent  him,  he 
claimed  that  they  were  rude  and  were  resisting 
Queen  Anne,  because,  forsooth,  he  held  a  com- 
mission as  missionary  from  a  society  which  was 
chartered  by  the  crown  !  Not  to  let  him  speak 
against  Friends  in  Friends'  meeting  was  rebellion 
against  the  queen  !  This  is  a  sample  of  the  gene- 
ral assumption  of  the  Ej3isco23al  clergy  of  that  day. 


PRESBYTERFANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.      14,5 

They  complained  that  it  was  iDersecution  not  to 
aliow  them  to  be  superior  here,  as  they  were  in 
England. 

Tlie  efforts  which  the  Episcopalians  thus  made 
*  were  a  j^crpetual  annoyance  to  Penn  and  his  suc- 
cessors. They  met  with  a  powerful  support  in 
England,  and  they  won  such  a  practical  re- 
cognition of  their  claim  here  that,  down  to  the 
separation  fj-om  the  mother  country,  the  annual 
mortuary  tables  which  were  published  gave  the 
reports  of  the  Episcopal  congregations,  connecting 
with  them  also  their  "  christenings,"  and  attached 
those  of  the  other  denominations  as  a  kind  of 
appendix  to  them.  We  meet  in  a  standard  work 
with  such  a  record  as  this  :  "  In  1729-30  the  in- 
terments in  one  year,  from  December  to  Decem- 
ber, were  227  ;  in  Church  ground,  81,  in  Quaker, 
39,  in  Presbyterian,  18,  in  Baptist,  18,  and  in 
strangers'  ground  (the  j^resent  Washington  Square, 
an  adorned  graveyard  for  them  now),  41  whites 
and  30  blacks.  ...  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that 
although  the  influence  of  Friends  was  once  so 
ascendant  as  to  show  a  majority  of  the  popula- 
tion, yet  it  seems  from  the  above  that  the  Church 
must  have  been  then  most  numerous." 

Now,  remember  that  "  the  distinction  of  ranks 
w^as  kept  up  in  the  colonies  with  the  precision  and 
etiquette  of  a  German  principality  of  four  miles 
square;"  that  down  to  the  Revolution  the  churches 


146  THE  TERCENTENABY. 

here  were  "  little  else  than  appendages  to  churches 
of  the  like  character  in  the  mother  country;"  and 
that  abroad  our  denomination  was  still  suffering 
from  the  sting  of  persecution,  while  the  influence 
and  the  money  of  England  were  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  Establishment:  and  you  can  realize  the 
tremendous  social  and  financial  disadvantages 
under  which  our  Church  labored. 

3.  The  23rotracted  revolutionary  war  demoral- 
ized all  the  churches,  and  especially  the  Presby- 
terian. Its  ministers  were  patriotic  to  the  back- 
bone. Theie  was  not  a  Tory  among  the  pastors 
of  this  city.  Several  of  them  w^ere  so  pro- 
nounced from  the  beginning  that  when  the 
British  took  possession  of  the  j^lace  they  were 
compelled  to  fly,  and  their  churches  were  ruined 
by  the  occupancy  and  intentional  abuse  of  the 
foreign  army.  A  Methodist  writer  candidly 
says :  "  When  the  British  took  j)ossession  of 
Philadelphia  in  1777,  after  the  battle  of  Brandy- 
wine,  though  they  dispossessed  the  Methodists  of 
St.  George's,  making  it  a  riding-school  for  their 
cavalry,  it  is  said  they  showed  some  regard  to 
them  (probably  on  account  of  the  side  Mr.  Wes- 
ley espoused  in  this  contest,  which  seems  to  have 
been  the  cause  that  led  them  to  favor  the  Wesley 
chapel  of  the  Methodists  of  New  York)  by 
giving  them  the  use  of  the  First  Baptist  church 
in  Lagrange  place,  in  Front  street,  to  worship  in, 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.      147 

thus  sliowino;  them  a  little  more  favor  than  was 
manifested  to  the  Baptists  and  Presbyterians." 
The  Presbyterians  received  no  favor.  Their 
congregations  were  broken  up  and  scattered.  In 
1777,  during  the  Bi'itish  occupancy,  only  21,7G7 
persons  could  be  found,  by  an  olHcial  census,  in 
the  city,  althougli  the  population  the  year  before 
was  40,000.  Almost  half  the  people  were  fugi- 
tives, and  many  of  them  never  came  back  to 
their  old  homes. 

Moreover,  when  peace  returned,  money  did  not 
return  with  it.  The  financial  condition  of  the 
country  was  crushing  for  years.  The  pastors  even 
of  this  city  were  wretchedly  supported.  The  Rev. 
Ashbel  Green  was  called  to  the  Second  church 
in  1786,  and  the  Rev.  John  Blair  Smith  to  the 
Third  in  1791,  on  salaries  equivalent  to  $800. 
The  Rev.  William  Marshall,  pastor  of  the  Scots 
church  from  1779  to  1786,  never  received  more 
than  $225  a  year.  Nor  were  the  salaries  promptly 
paid.  A  man  so  prominent,  and  who  became  so 
powerful,  as  Ashbel  Green,  has  left  on  record  the 
fact  that  his  wife  told  him  one  morning  that 
"she  was  without  money  to  go  to  market,  and 
without  a  stick  of  firewood  in  the  house;"  and 
that  in  his  distress  he  went  out  into  the  street 
and  told  his  story  to  one  of  his  elders,  who,  mor- 
tified by  the  tale,  advanced  enough  from  his  own 
pocket  to  meet  the  pressing  wants  of  the  family. 


148  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

Generally,  the  pastors  of  an  earlier  day  united 
teaching  with  pastoral  work.  Probably  that  was 
necessary  for  their  support,  but  it  prevented  them 
from  giving  their  full  energies  to  labors  that 
i-eally  demanded  them  alh 

4.  The  successive  visitations  of  the  yellow 
fever  in  1793,  7,  '8,  '9  and  1802  continued  this 
prostrating  work  of  the  revolutionary  war.  Dr. 
Sj^roat,  of  the  Second  church,  with  his  family, 
and  Dr.  John  Blair  Smith,  of  the  Third,  fell  vic- 
tims to  the  terrible  scourge.  The  city  was  largely 
deserted.  Its  streets  were  a  desolation.  Among 
the  inhabitants  who  remained  at  home  spiritual- 
ity seemed  to  be  almost  entirely  dead.  In  1797 
all  the  churches,  except  one  Methodist  and  the 
Second  Presbyterian,  w^ere  closed.  .  Dr.  Green 
tells  us  that  he  never  preached  with  more  direct- 
ness and  earnestness  than  that  year,  while  the 
pestilence  was  stalking  among  the  people;  and 
yet  he  did  not  know  of  a  soul  that  was  savingly 
impressed  by  that  preaching. 

5.  Infidelity,  as  a  moral  scourge,  was  almost 
equally  destructive.  Bancroft  Avell  says  that 
"  the  school  that  bows  to  the  senses  as  the  sole 
interpreter  of  truth  had  little  share  in  colonizing 
America ;"  but  the  religious  skepticism  which  pre- 
vailed in  connection  with  it,  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  fell  with  a  blighting  influence  upon  the 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELnilA.       149 

land.  The  officers  of  the  revolutionary  army- 
were  largely  infected  by  it.  After  our  struggle 
for  independence,  sympathy  witli  the  French  po- 
litical movements  inoculated  the  country  witli  the 
poison  of  French  irreligion.  So  widespread  had 
this  become  tliat  our  General  Assembly  of  1798 
issued  an  address  on  the  subject,  and  appointed  a 
day  of  fasting  and  prayer  on  account  of  it.  In 
this  city  free-thinking  had  a  specially  strong 
foothold.  Its  advocates  mingled  among  the 
church-people,  and  had  an  influence  in  their  con- 
gregational arrangements.  As  far  back  as  1735, 
Mr.  Andrews  sj)eaks  of  "  the  infidel  disposition 
of  too  many  here ;"  and  alluding  to  Mr.  HemjD- 
hill,  he  adds :  "  Some  desiring  that  I  should 
have  assistance,  and  some  leading  men  not  dis- 
affected to  that  way  of  Deism  as  they  should  be, 
that  man  was  imposed  on  me  and  the  congre- 
gation. Most  of  the  best  of  the  j)eople  were  soon 
so  dissatisfied  that  they  would  not  come  to  meet- 
ing. Free-thinkers,  deists  and  nothings,  getting 
a  scout  of  him,  flocked  to  hear."  Later,  just  at 
the  close  of  the  century,  and  while  this  city  was 
the  seat  of  the  national  government,  the  evan- 
gelical ministers  found  it  necessary  to  form  an 
association  for  the  adoption  of  measures  to  coun- 
teract the  spread  of  infidel  notions  through  a 
certain  newspaper  which  was  {patronized  by  Sec- 
retary   of   State  Jeflerson.      Rampant    infidelity 


150  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

had  more  iiifluence  than — the  Lord  be  praised — it 
has  now. 

6.  The  standard  of  morality  both  in  the  Church 
and  the  world  was  low.  The  churches  had  not 
so  much  power,  because  they  were  not  really  so 
spiritual  as  they  have  since  been.  The  line  be- 
tween the  religious  and  the  irreligious  was  not  as 
distinctly  drawn.  Clergymen  of  a  certain  class 
fought  duels  in  the  last  century.  Lotteries  were 
freely  resorted  to  for  the  purpose  of  raising  money 
for  religious  uses.  In  this  way  even  such  a 
Presbyterian  church  as  the  Second,  and  such  an 
Episcopal  church  as  Christ's,  raised  the  money 
wlierewith  to  secure  bells.  Drunkenness  was  not 
degradation.  What  a  state  of  society  there  must 
have  been  when  the  gentle  and  harmless  Moravi- 
ans "  had  to  give  up  their  night-meetings  because 
s  me  young  fellows  disturbed  them  by  an  instru- 
ment sounding  like  a  cuckoo,  which  they  sounded 
at  the  end  of  every  line  of  the  hymns "  !  The 
worshipers  of  God  were  not  protected  by  the  civil 
power.  The  chains  which  Ave  have  heard  about, 
as  having  once  kept  vehicles  from  passing  churches 
during  the  hours  of  service  on  the  Sabbath,  were 
not  drawn  until  the  very  close  of  the  century. 

"The  good  old  times !"  The  good  times  are 
now,  and  the  better  are  ever  coming. 

An  idea  of  the  relative  strength  of  the  different 
denominations  at  the   beo-innino;  of  the  revolu- 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.        151 

tionary  war  may  perhaps  be  formed  from  the 
mortuary  and  baptismal  tables  of  1774-5.  The 
Episcoi)alians  reported  207  burials  in  their 
grounds  (Christ's  and  St.  Peter's,  176,  St.  Paul's, 
29)  ;  the  Lutherans,  196  (the  German  Lutheran, 
173,  and  the  Swedes,  which  has  since  become  an 
Episcopal  church,  23)  ;  the  Presbyterians,  158 
(First,  58,  Second,  29,  Tnird,  61,  Scots,  10);  the 
Quakers,  129 ;  the  German  Reformed,  GO ;  the 
Romanists,  44 ;  the  Baptists,  8 ;  the  Moravians, 
4 ;  \Yhile  in  the  potter's  field  there  were  390  in- 
terments. TJie  "  christenings  "  reported  were,  by 
the  Lutherans,  390  (the  German,  345,  the  Swedes, 
45) ;  the  Episcopalians,  323  (Christ's  and  St. 
Peter's,  231,  St.  Paul's,  92) ; .  the  Presbyterians, 
126  (the  First  church,  47  ;  Second,  17  ;  Third, 
39,  Scots,  23) ;  German  Reformed,  93 ;  Roman- 
ists, 57  ;  Moravians,  5.  The  Methodists  are  not 
particularized,  I  suppose  because  they  had  no 
burial-ground  and  were  still  closely  associated 
with  the  Episcopal  Church,  though  they  com- 
menced to  preach  here  in  1767,  and  at  the  first 
conference  in  1773  they  reported  180  full  mem- 
bers in  the  city. 

It  will  be  an  interesting  hint  of  the  size  of  the 
city  during  the  revolutionary  war  to  note  that 
"the  western  improvements  -scarcely  extended 
half  a  mile  from  the  Delawai-e,  and  it  was  a 
country  walk  for  citizens  to  go  to  the   hospital, 


152  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

the  Swedes  church  or  the  shipyard  at  Kensing- 
ton." In  1777  there  were  3508  houses  in  what 
was  then  the  city  proper,  781  in  Southwark  and 
1170  in  the  Northern  Liherties — in  all  the  dis- 
tricts, 5459,  of  which  287  were  stores.  The 
churches  w^ere — '*four  Presbyterian,  three  Epis- 
copal, two  Catholic,  one  Lutheran,  one  Methodist, 
Baptist,  Moravian,  German  Calvinist,  Swedish 
Lutheran." 


VI.  PEOGRESS  IN  THIS  CENTURY. 

But  for  the  reasons  which  have  been  given,  at 
the  beginning  of  this  century,  the  various  de- 
nominations were  on  a  plane.  The  history  has 
a  new  point  of  departure.  And  from  that  time 
the  progress  of  Presbyterianism  in  every  ele- 
ment of  strength  has  been  unequaled. 

In  the  largest  space  which  might  be  presumed 
upon  for  this  paper,  I  could  not  trace  the  organ- 
ization and  history  of  the  churches  that  have 
been  formed  in  this  century,  even  in  the  general 
way  in  which  I  have  followed  the  first  three  with 
their  pastors.  All  that  I  can  do  is  to  summarize 
the  results  and  show  the  general  progress  by 
periods.  Even  in  this  summary  way,  moreover, 
I  must  restrict  myself  to  the  one  reunited  branch, 
for  only  in  reference  to  its  congregations  have  I 
been  able  to  obtain  the  figures.     I  endeavored  to 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.       153 

secure  tlie  statistics  of  all,  and  succeeded  with  some, 
but  failed  in  others.  I  wish  to  make  precise  and 
accurate  statements,  and  not  to  indulge  in  esti- 
mates or  guesses  based  upon  partial  reports.  Let 
it,  therefore,  be  understood  that  the  following 
statements  refer  to  the  reunited  branch  of  the 
Church  alone ;  though,  as  far  as  I  can  judge,  the 
accurate  figures  of  the  other  branches  would  by 
no  means  weaken  the  general  view  of  our  Pres- 
byterianism  which  will  be  given. 

The  ojDcning  year  of  the  century  was  marked 
by  the  organization  of  a  new  church,  the  Fourth, 
with  the  Rev.  George  Potts  as  pastor,  but  no 
great  impidse  was  given  in  the  years  immediately 
succeeding.  Between  1788  and  1816,  400  or  500 
houses  were  erected  annually  in  the  city,  but  only 
five  new  churches  of  our  denomination  were  called 
for.  In  1816  the  city,  including  Soutlnvark  and 
the  Northern  Liberties,  extended  three  miles 
alons:  the  Delaware  and  about  a  mile  east  and 
west,  and  contained  15,000  houses,  and  probably 
100,000  people.  There  w^ere  then  in  it  more  than 
30  churches,  and  8  of  them  were  Presbyterian. 

Summarizing  the  new  churches  by  decades,  we 
find  that  two  were  organized  betw^een  1800  and 
1810,  seven  between  1810  and  1820,  four  between 
1820  and  1830,  eleven  between  1830  and  1840, 
ten  between  1840  and  1850,  twenty-two  between 
1850  and  1860,  fourteen  since  1860. 


154  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

Three  have  also  been  received  from  other 
branches.  Seven  have  been  disbanded  or  con- 
solidated with  others.  There  are  now  sixty-nine 
in  all,  four  of  which  are  in  what,  it  ought  to  be 
hoped,  is  only  a  state  of  suspended  animation. 

The  living  stones  which  com230se  these  organ- 
izations have  increased  in  a  greater  degree. 

The  first  year  in  which  all  the  churches  re- 
ported the  number  of  their  communicants  to  the 
presbytery  was  1806.  The  total  was  722.  Last 
year  the  number  was  19,365. 

Observe  the  great  increase  which  this  is  in  pro- 
portion to  the  number  of  inhabitants  in  the  city. 
The  population  in  1806,  according  to  a  directory 
for  that  year,  was  between  90,000  and  100,000. 
In  1870  it  was  674,022.  In  the  former  year  we 
had,  therefore,  not  more  than  one  communicant 
in  every  124  of  the  population ;  we  have  now  one 
in  every  35.  Or  to  put  the  matter  in  another 
form :  The  census  of  the  city  is  seven  and  a  half 
times  as  large  now  as  it  was  then ;  our  communion 
rolls  are  almost  twenty-seven  times  as  large. 

If  we  cast  our  eye  back  midway  in  the  century, 
we  find  that  in  1836,  just  before  the  division,  the 
reports  were  very  incomplete.  Several  churches 
failed  to  make  any.  Those  which  sent  up  their 
returns  numbered  4331  communicants.  The 
division  did  not  permanently  stay  the  progress 
of  the  denomination.      Each  party,  as  the  other 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.       155 

by  its  subsequent  course  admitted,  was  contend- 
ing for  great  truths,  though  without  the  proper 
guards  and  connections.  God  blessed  the  truths 
and  removed  the  errors,  and  has  phiced  us  in  one 
body  again  with  the  truths,  as  we  hope,  rightly 
related  and  interlaced. 

Greater  still  has  been  the  development  of  the 
benevolence  of  the  Church.  This  is  true  not 
only  absolutely,  but  relatively,  both  in  proportion 
to  the  number  of  members  and  the  wealth  of  the 
people. 

In  1789  the  churches  which  were  then  in  the 
city  raised  £16  19s.  for  the  benevolent  causes 
which  were  managed  by  the  Assembly. 

In  1807  the  whole  presbytery  of  Philadelphia 
(which  consisted  of  20  churches,  16  of  them  in 
the  country,  with  1500  communicants)  rejDorted 
only  $871  for  the  same  purposes. 

In  1825  w^e  had  17  churches,  with  3946  com- 
municants. They  were  reported  as  contributing 
$1048. 

For  years  after  the  division,  one  of  the  branches 
did  not  publish  in  the  statistical  tables  the 
moneys  contributed  for  benevolent  objects.  This 
was  not  done  until  1853.  In  that  year  the 
two  branches  had  46  churches,  with  11,096  com- 
municants, wdio  contributed  $40,503. 

There  w^ere,  in  1860,  60  churches,  with  15,519 
communicants.   Their  contributions  were  $79,377. 


156  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

In  1870,  the  year  of  reunion,  the  numbers  re- 
ported were  17,982  communicants,  and  $190,170 
of  contributions. 

Last  year,  with  our  19,365  members,  our  be- 
nevolent cohimns  amounted  to  $473,300.  This 
is  450  times  as  much  as  in  1825,  although  the 
communicants  are  only  five  times  as  many  ;  almost 
twelve  times  as  much  as  1853,  while  the  commu- 
nicants are  not  doubled ;  and  six  times  as  much 
as  in  1860,  with  an  increase  in  communicants  of 
about  one-fourth.  It  is,  moreover,  twice  as  much 
as  was  reported  by  the  denomination  in  the  whole 
land  in  1837,  when  it  had  over  220,000  mem- 
bers. It  may  be  added,  too,  that  down  to  1815 
the  annual  expenditures  for  missions  in  the  whole 
denomination  rarely  exceeded  $2500. 

The  first  year  in  which  both  the  then  separate 
branches  published  the  moneys  raised  by  their 
churches  for  their  own  congregational  purposes 
Avas  1865.  The  amount  of  that  column  in  all  the 
churches  in  this  city  was  $216,036.  Last  year  it 
was  $519,478. 

The  other  columns  in  1865  ran  up  to  $231,100, 
making,  with  the  congregational  expenditures, 
a  total  of  $447,136.  The  same  total  last  year 
was  $992,777.  The  amount  has,  therefore, 
much  more  than  doubled  in  seven  years.  The 
field  of  labor  is  great  and  growing.  May  the 
next   seven    years    far   outstrip    the    last    seven 


PEESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.       157 

111  the  contributions  for  the  support  of  the  work ! 
The  standard  wliich  lias  been  reached  is  by  no 
means  the  tithe  of  tlie  means  of  the  Church. 

The  piety  and  the  activity  of  our  membership 
cannot  be  set  forth  in  figures.  We  have  no  ther- 
mometrical  scale  on  which  growtli  in  grace  can 
be  graduated.  But  if  conversions  of  souls  and 
contributions  to  God's  cause  be  any  evidence  of 
a  faithfulness  blessed  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  there 
must  have  been  in  this  Church  a  c-reat  and  ofrow- 
ing  active  piety.  If  that  has  been  accompanied 
by  a  neglect  of  the  contemplative  and  meditative 
elements  of  the  Christian  character  the  fact 
should  humble  us.  Deepening  spirituality  is 
needed  as  well  as  growing  numbers  and  increas- 
ing contributions. 

VII.  THE  GREAT  EVANGELICAL   CHUECHES  OF 

THE  CITY. 

While  portraying  especially  the  progress  of 
Presbyterianism,  we  will  not  forget  the  one  faith 
that  unites  the  other  evangelical  denominations 
with  us.  The  impression  exists  to  some  extent 
that  the  Church  is  being  rapidly  outstripped  by 
the  world,  and  that  a  constantly  increasing 
proportion  of  our  population  is  passing  beyond 
the  influences  of  the  sanctuary.  The  following 
facts  show,  on  the  contrary,  that  a  larger  propor- 
tion of  the  inhabitants  of  the  city  are  members 

14 


158  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

of  the  churches  now  than  were  at  the  beginning 
of  the  century : 

The  first  year  for  which  I  have  been  able  to 
find  the  official  reports  of  the  Baptist  churches  is 
18a7.  The  Methodists  then  reported  2170  mem- 
bers in  the  city  ;  the  Presbyterians,  746  ;  the  Bap- 
tists, 488.  The  total  was  3404,  or  about  one  in  26 
of  the  population.  Last  year  there  were  in  the 
churches  of  our  reunited  branch  alone  19,365 
communicants;  under  the  Methodist  conference, 
18,976 ;  in  connection  with  the  two  Baptist  asso- 
ciations of  the  city,  14,798 — a  total  of  53,076,  or 
one  in  12  of  the  population.  The  city  has  seven 
times  as  many  inhabitants ;  these  three  leading 
denominations  together  (without  counting  our 
United  and  Keformed  branches)  have  seventeen 
times  as  many  members  as  in  1807. 

I  would  like  to  have  included  in  this  the  figures 
of  all  the  churches.  The  only  others  that  I  have 
been  able  to  obtain  are  those  of  the  Episcopalians 
for  last  year,  though  not  for  the  beginning  of  the 
century,  when  they  were  the  strongest  denomina- 
tion. The  number  of  communicants  in  that 
branch  of  the  Church  is  16,936.  Including  that 
number,  the  total  of  these  four  great  denomina- 
tions is  over  80,000.  Thus  one  in  eight  of  the  pop- 
ulation is  a  communicant  in  one  of  these  churches. 
Add  their  Sabbath-school  children  and  the  fami- 
lies that  are  under  their  direct  influence,  and  it 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.       159 

will  be  found  that  the  means  of  grace  are  brought 
in  constant  contact  with  a  very  large  portion  of 
the  people.  There  are  still  too  many  outside  of 
all  ecclesiastical  lines — enough  to  demand  the  un- 
intermitted  missionary  labors  of  Christians ;  but 
the  proportion  of  them  is  not  so  great  as  it  was 
seventy  years  ago.  This  should  encourage  us  to 
labor  and  pray  and  hope  for  greater  progress 
still.  The  army  of  Christ  has  not  been  retreat- 
ing. It  has  not  been  acting  on  the  defensive. 
It  has  gone  on  conquering.  Let  its  members  be 
stimulated  and  encouraged  for  the  further  con- 
quests to  which  its  Leader  calls  it. 

The  united  ecclesiastical  money-reports  of  these 
denominations  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia  for 
the  last  year,  are  also  imposing.  They  are  as 
follows:  The  Reunited  Presbyterian,  $992,777; 
United,  $49,563  ;  Reformed,  $46,517  ;  Dutch  Re- 
formed, $27,107 ;  German  Reformed,  $7225  (be- 
nevolent only  reported)  ;  Episcopalian,  $592,000  ; 
Methodist,  $354,000;  Baptist,  $300,000— in  all, 
$2,369,345. 

The  figures  show  not  merely  that  the  Church 
of  Christ  in  its  various  branches  is  making  de- 
cided progress,  but  that  Presbyterianism  has  in 
every  element  of  strength  been  blessed  with  a 
greater  advance  than  any  other  denomination. 

Manifestly,  Calvinism,  if  gld — and  old  it  is, 
older  than  Calvin,  older  than  Augustine,  older 


160  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

than  Paul,  older  than  time  itself — is  not  worn 
out.  It  has  great  power  in  winning  souls  to 
Jesus  and  developing  in  them  the  Christian,  life. 
The  Presbyterian  form  of  government,  if  rigid 
and  iron-clad,  has  largely  multi^^lied  its  willing 
subjects. 

We  almost  hesitate  to  give  the  comparative 
facts  and  figures,  lest  we  be  charged  with  boast- 
ing. But  we  are  telling  the  simple  story  of  God's 
Avork  in  us  and  by  us  and  for  himself,  and  as  we 
tell  it  we  cry  out  humbly  and  gratefully.  What 
hath  God  wrouoht ! 

If  Philadelphia  be  a  fair  representative  of 
American  society,  Presbyterianism  is  pre-emi- 
nently adapted  to  America. 

VIII.  CHARACTERISTICS   OF  PHILADELPHIA  PRES- 
BYTERIANISM. 

Certain  characteristics  of  the  Church  which 
God  has  so  abundantly  blessed  w^ill  close  this 
paper.  Here  are  the  prominent  features  which 
have  given  Presbyterianism  its  power  in  this  city: 

1.  The  watchmen  upon  its  walls  have  been 
noble  men. 

It  is  the  ministry  that  largely  gives  character 
to  a  Church.  On  the  list  of  our  Philadelphia 
pastors  are  found  221  names.  Of  these  ^S  have 
already  been  wafted  through  heaven's  pearly  gates 
into  the  visible  presence  of  their  Lord,  72  are 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.       161 

laboring  in  other  posts,  60  are  still  in  the  pastoral 
work  here.  On  no  field  of  the  same  extent,  in 
no  catalogue  of  the  same  number,  do  we  believe 
there  can  be  found  a  band  of  men  equal  to  them 
in  intellect,  in  moral  worth,  in  spiritual  activity 
and  in  permanent  usefulness. 

Nineteen  of  them  have  been  called  to  the 
venerable  chair  of  the  moderator  of  the  General 
Assembly — one-sixth  of  all  who  in  the  whole 
national  Church  have  received  that  honor. 

The  roll  of  the  already  glorified  (called  from 
earth  while  still  in  the  pastorate  here)  commences 
with  the  first  pastor  of  the  First  church  and  ends 
with  the  late  emeritus  pastor  of  the  same  chui'ch, 
Albert  Barnes :  the  life-long  student  and  popular 
interpreter  of  the  word  of  God  ;  a  man  of  strong 
convictions  and  mild  in  his  strength  ;  attaching  to 
himself  as  with  bands  of  steel  one  branch  of  the 
denomination,  and  preserving  the  unbroken  re- 
spect of  the  other  through  all  the  days  of  separa- 
tion ;  spared  to  behold  the  two  reunited,  and  to 
mino'le  with  us  all  for  a  little  while  in  ministerial 
converse,  through  which  his  speech  distilled  as 
the  dew,  but  then,  in  the  first  fhisli  of  our  re- 
union joy,  translated  without  seeing  the  pain  of 
death. 

Among  the  living  ex-pastors  are  men  that  are 
hard  at  work  in  other  pastoral  fiekls  and  in  col- 
leges  and   theological    seminaries  at  home   and 


162  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

abroad,  some  of  them  among  the  first  biblical 
and  theological  scholars  of  the  day. 

The  Church  here  has  drawn  many  of  its  min- 
isters from  other  parts  of  the  Lord's  vineyard. 
But  it  has  raised  up  not  a  few  for  its  own  home 
use,  and  has  sent  to  other  places  a  large  number 
of  eminent  workers.  Among  the  earlier  on  this 
list  may  be  mentioned  John  Rodgers,  whose  pecu- 
liar honor  it  Avas  to  be  moderator  of  the  first 
General  Assembly.  From  the  later  and  the  liv- 
ing sons  of  the  Church  in  Philadelphia  may  be 
selected  for  loving  mention,  without  the  risk  of 
being  considered  invidious,  the  world-wdde  name 
of  one  who  is  recognized  as  a  primate  among 
theologians,  and  who  has  been  the  instructor  in 
their  seminary  life  of  two  thousand  American 
ministers — Charles  Hodge  :  Clarum  et  venerabile 
nomen  ! 

The  moral  character  of  the  long  line  of  pastors 
has  been  even  more  elevated  than  their  intellectual 
standing.  You  can  count  on  the  fingers  of  one 
hand  all  against  whom,  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end  of  these  170  years,  any  charge  of  impropriety 
was  ever  made. 

2.  As  the  ministers  themselves  have  in  general 
been  highly  educated,  so  they  and  their  churches 
have  uniformly  co-operated  in  the  educational 
movements  of  the  city. 

The  University  of  Pennsylvania  is  not  a  secta- 


FRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.       163 

rian  institution,  though  it  seems  lately  to  have 
come  especially  under  the  influence  of  one  of  the 
Christian  denominations.  It  was  established  as  a 
State  institution,  and  it  is  greatly  indebted  to 
Presbyterians — how  much  is  partially  suggested 
by  the  Honorable  Judge  Ludlow's  remarkably 
beautiful  address  at  the  late  inauguration  services 
of  the  new  building.  But  I  beg  leave  to  i^lace 
in  his  gallery  a  grand  old  portrait  which  he  has 
left  out  of  its  frame.  The  Rev.  Francis  AJison 
was  one  of  the  first  scholars  of  his  day.  Presi- 
dent Stiles  pronounced  him  "  the  greatest  classi- 
cal scholar  in  America,  esj^ecially  in  Greek,"  and 
'Mn  ethics,  history  and  general  reading  a  great 
literary  character."  In  1756,  when  he  was  fifty- 
one  years  of  age,  the  University  of  Glasgow  gave 
him  the  degree  of  doctor  in  divinity.  He  was 
the  first  American  minister  who  was  so  honored, 
and  such  was  his  position,  and  so  highly  esteemed 
was  the  honor,  that  the  synod  of  Philadelphia 
passed  a  resolution  of  thanks  for  it.  The  synod 
had  in  1744  placed  him  at  the  head  of  a  school 
which  it  engrafted  on  a  previously  existing  gram- 
mar school  of  his  own  in  New  London,  and  in 
which  instruction  was  to  be  given  "  in  the  lan- 
guages, philosophy  and  divinity."  From  that 
school  went  forth  some  of  the  most  eminent  men 
in  Church  and  State  of  the  close  of  the  last  and 
the    beginning    of   the   present  century,  among 


164  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

them  "  Charles  Thompson,  secretary  of  the  first 
Congress ;  Eev.  Dr.  John  Ewing,  provost  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania ;  Dr.  Ramsey,  the 
historian ;  Dr.  Hugh  Williamson,  one  of  the 
framers  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
and  historian  of  North  Carolina ;  Kev.  Dr.  James 
Latta,  eminent  as  a  divine  and  a  teacher,  and 
Thomas  McKean,  George  Read  and  James  Smith, 
signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence." 
Such  was  Dr.  Alison's  reputation  that  when  the 
academy  in  Philadelphia  was  about  to  be  estab- 
lished, Dr.  Franklin  sought,  and  in  1752  se- 
cured, him  for  the  position  of  principal.  When  it 
was  transformed  into  a  college  in  1755,  he  be- 
came vice  provost  and  jDrofessor  of  moral  philoso- 
phy, and  during  a  part  of  the  government  of  Dr. 
Smith  he  seems  to  have  acted  as  provost.  While 
in  this  position  he  was  also  associate  pastor  of  the 
First  church.  His  pupil  and  his  successor  in 
that  church,  the  Pev.  Dr.  John  Ewing,  became 
the  first  provost  of  the  university  when  the  col- 
lege was  so  transformed  in  1779.  He  was  a 
prodigy  of  learning.  Dr.  Miller  says  that  "  at 
the  age  of  twenty-six,  before  he  undertook  the 
pastoral  charge,  he  was  selected  to  instruct  the 
philosophical  classes  in  the  College  of  Philadel- 
phia during  the  absence  of  the  provost,  the  Pev. 
Dr.  Smith."  Afterward,  "  besides  presiding  over 
the  whole  university  as  its  head  with  dignity  and 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  nilLADELPHIA.       165 

commanding  influence,  he  was  professor  of  natural 
philosophy  in  the  institution,  and  every  year  de- 
livered a  course  of  learned  and  able  lectures  on 
that  branch  of  science.  But  this  was  not  all. 
Perhaps  our  country  has  never  bred  a  man  so 
deeply  as  well  as  extensively  versed  in  every 
branch  of  knowledge  commonly  taught  in  our 
colleges  as  was  Dr.  Ewing.  Such  was  his  famil- 
iarity with  the  Hebrew  language  that  I  have  been 
assured  by  those  most  intimately  acquainted  with 
his  habits  that  his  Hebrew  Bible  was  constantly 
by  his  side  in  his  study,  and  that  it  was  that 
which  he  used  of  choice  for  devotional  jmrposes. 
In  mathematics  and  astronomy,  in  the  Latin, 
Greek  and  Hebrew  languages,  in  logic,  in  meta- 
physics and  moral  philosophy,  he  was  probably 
more  accom23lished  than  any  other  man  in  the 
United  States.  When  any  other  professor  in  the 
university  was  absent,  the  provost  could  take  his 
place  at  an  hour's  w^arning,  and  conduct  the  in- 
struction appropriate  to  that  professorship  with 
more  skill,  taste  and  advantage  than  the  incum- 
bent of  the  chair  himself.  His  skill  in  mathe- 
matical science  was  so  pre-eminent  and  acknow- 
ledged that  he  was  more  than  once  employed  with 
Dr.  Bitteii house  of  Philadelphia  in  runnuig  the 
boundary-lines  between  several  of  the  States,  in 
which  he  acquitted  himself  in  the  most  able  and 
honorable  manner.    He  was  one  of  the  vice  ])resi- 


166  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

dents  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  and 
made  a  number  of  contributions  to  the  volumes 
of  their  '  Transactions '  which  do  honor  to  his 
memory."  Dr.  Ewing  continued  to  be  provost 
for  twenty-three  years,  until  his  death,  in  1802. 
Then,  down  to  the  year  1852,  almost  without  an 
interregnum,  Presbyterians  were  provosts  or  vice 
provosts  of  the  university.  Here  we  have  the 
names  of  John  McDowell,  LL.D.,  Pobert  Pat- 
terson, Dr.  Robert  M.  Patterson,  Samuel  B. 
Wylie,  D.D.,  and  John  Ludlow,  D.D.  Let 
this  be  accepted  as  typical  of  the  educational 
position  of  Philadelphia  Presbyterians. 

3.  Because  of  the  solid  intellectual  character 
of  its  pastors,  and  because  of  the  intellectual  and 
logical  character  of  its  system,  Presbyterianism 
has  always  attracted  to  itself  a  large  proportion 
of  the  intelligence  of  the  city. 

In  the  last  century  and  in  this  we  meet  with 
frequent  hints  of  the  eagerness  with  which  the 
first  men  of  their  time  sat  under  the  preaching 
of  our  pulpit  orators.  And  to-day,  as  in  the 
past,  ruling  elders  and  adherents  of  our  churches 
grace  every  county,  State  and  federal  court  that 
we  have.  Their  names  are  among  the  brightest 
on  the  rolls  of  our  lawyers  and  physicians.  To 
enumerate  them  would  be  to  draw  out  a  catalogue 
which  would  be  an  address  in  itself;  we  could 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.       1G7 

not  select  a  few  without  omitting  others  equally 
eminent. 

The  denomination  is,  however,  and  always  has 
been,  very  largely  a  Church  of  the  working  classes. 
They  make  up  the  bone  and  sinew  of  the  greater 
number  of  its  congregations,  and  they  must  con- 
tinue to  do  so  if  we  are  to  maintain  our  numeri- 
cal, money  and  working  progress. 

4.  The  conservative  character  of  its  pulpit  has 
given  our  denomination  great  power. 

The  Bible  teaches  all  the  morality  that  the 
world  needs.  The  seeds  of  every  true  reforma- 
tory movement  are  in  the  inspired  book.  Chris- 
tians should  not  be  willing  to  accept  rationalistic 
humanitarians  as  leaders,  nor  to  descend  from  tlie 
revealed  vantage-ground  to  work  with  them  on 
their  platform  for  the  world's  regeneration.  In 
this  spirit  the  Presbyterians  of  this  city  have 
acted.  Among  its  pastors  have  been  men  whom 
some  of  their  conservative  brethren  may  have 
considered  radical  on  current  moral  and  political 
questions ;  but  even  they  have  not  swept  the  plat- 
form over  the  pulpit,  nor  sunk  the  accredited 
ambassador  of  the  skies  in  the  demagogue  of  the 
hour.  The  two  classes  have  kei)t  the  Church 
where  it  should  be  in  contact  with  social  ques- 
tions. Radicalism  of  belief  and  of  purp:  se,  united 
with  conservatism  of  action  (God's  own  mode  of 
dealing  with  sin  and  sorrow),  has  been  the  charac- 


168  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

teristic  of  Presbyteriauism  in  its  struggles  with 
the  evils  of  society,  and  this  has  greatly  helped  to 
build  it  up  in  this  steady,  quiet  and  substantial 
city. 

5.  The  bitterest  opponent  of  Presbyterianism 
in  Philadelphia  could  not  charge  it  with  a  want 
of  patriotism.  The  dissolute  Charles  the  Second 
understood  the  connection  between  our  theological 
system  and  republicanism  when  he  said  that  for 
this  very  reason  Calvinism  was  a  religion  unfit  for 
a  gentleman.  History,  while  contradicting  his  con- 
clusion, has  abundantly  substantiated  his  premises. 
And  in  this  city,  from  the  beginning,  our  Church 
is  a  proof  of  the  essential  republicanism  of  Pres- 
byterianism. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  struggle  for  in- 
dependence it  was  considered  doubtful  which 
side  the  merchants  of  Philadelphia  would  take. 
The  question  caused  great  anxiety  in  the  East 
and  at  the  South.  But  the  synod  of  Philadelphia 
met  in  May,  1775,  just  a  month  after  the  battle  of 
Lexington,  and  without  hesitation  or  trimming 
unanimously  placed  itself  on  the  side  of  the 
colonies,  and  in  a  pastoral  letter  to  its  churches 
used  these  words :  ''  In  particular,  as  the  Conti- 
nental Congress  now  sitting  at  Philadelphia  con- 
sists of  delegates  chosen  in  the  most  free  and  un- 
biased manner  by  the  body  of  the  people,  let 
them  not  only  be  treated  with  respect  and  en- 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.       169 

couraged  in  their  difficult  service,  not  only  let 
your  prayers  be  offered  up  to  God  for  his  direction 
in  their  proceedings,  but  adhere  firmly  to  their 
resolutions,  and  let  it  be  seen  that  they  are  able 
to  bring  out  the  whole  strength  of  this  vast 
country  to  carry  them  into  execution."  Incul- 
cating in  connection  with  this  a  spirit  of  humanity 
and  mercy,  they  used  words  which  are  sometimes 
quoted  in  ignorance  of  their  origin  :  "  That  man 
will  fight  most  bravely  who  never  fights  until  it 
is  necessary,  and  who  ceases  to  fight  as  soon  as 
the  necessity  is  over." 

So  pre-eminent  was  the  patriotism  of  Presby- 
terians, so  great  w^ere  their  sacrifices,  so  ^^opular 
had  they  become  in  their  political  relations,  that 
the  fear  existed,  at  the  cessation  of  hostilities, 
that  our  Church  might  seek  the  honoi*s,  the 
emoluments  and  the  power  of  an  Establishment ; 
but  the  synod  of  1781  took  the  opportunity  to 
disavow  this,  and  to  affirm  its  adherence  to  the 
grand  principles  of  religious  liberty  which  under- 
lie our  institutions. 

The  Philadelphia  pastors  and  churches  had 
their  shai-e  of  those  sufferings,  and  did  their  share 
of  that  work.  The  scholarly  Dr.  Ewing,  while  on 
an  educational  visit  to  England  in  1773,  expos- 
tulated with  Lord  North,  and  defended  the  colo- 
nies in  the  circles  of  the  learned.  Dr.  Davidson, 
for  his  devotion  to  the  cause,  was  compelk'd  to 

15 


170  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

leave  the  city  when  the  British  entered  it.  Dr. 
Duffield's  clarion  patriotic  voice  was  heard  in 
prayer  for  the  colonies  as  a  chaplain  to  the  Con- 
tinental Congress,  in  ringing  exhortations  to  the 
people  of  his  charge,  and  in  the  camp  while  the 
cannon  of  the  enemy  were  directed  against  it. 

Coming  down  to  our  own  time,  when  the  gov- 
ernment was  struck  at  eleven  years  ago,  where,  in 
this  broad  land,  were  found  pastors  and  people 
who  flew  more  quickly  to  its  support,  and  stood 
by  it  more  persistently  to  the  end  of  the  strug- 
gle, than  those  who  constituted  the  Presbyterian 
churches  of  this  city  ? 

And  now  there  are  none  niore  ready  to  hold 
out  the  ungloved  hand  and  to  grasp  with  an 
affectionate  embrace  the  alienated  brethren  of 
the  South,  in  forgetfulness  of  the  past,  and  to 
bind  the  Church,  as  well  as  the  State,  in  a  heart- 
unity  more  thorough  than  ever. 

6.  A  very  decided  denominationalism  has  cha- 
racterized Philadelphia  Presbyterianism. 

This  has,  however,  always  been  associated  with 
the  broadest  catholicity.  Our  system  unchurches 
no  Christian.  But  its  catholicity  has  gone  farther 
than  the  hearty  and  constant  recognition  of  the 
ministry  and  ordinances  of  other  churches.  Be- 
fore the  middle  of  the  last  century,  in  extraordi- 
nary circumstances,  the  presbytery  of  Philadel- 
phia, with  the  consent  of  synod,  ordained  a  man 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.        171 

with  Lutheran  views,  so  that  he  might  be  able  to 
labor  among  his  destitute  co-religionists  in  the 
country.  Amid  the  bitter  feeling  which  charac- 
terized the  commencement  of  that  century,  it  is 
recorded  that  on  one  occasion,  "  when  Christ 
church  could  not  be  used,  the  Presbyterians 
offered  the  use  of  their  church  to  the  vestry." 

Further  examine  the  names  of  the  manao^ers 
and  the  working  members  of  the  charitable  union 
societies  of  the  city,  and  see  where  they  belong. 
Look  into  the  columns  of  contributions,  and  see 
from  whom  the  money  comes.  Their  strength  is 
Presbyterian.  Decided  denominationalism  and 
catholic  charity  have  been  happily  blended  in  the 
working  of  our  Church  in  Philadelphia. 

7.  Presbyterians  seem  to  others  to  depend 
mainly  on  slow  accretion  and  quiet  culture  for 
their  growth.  Our  doctrine  of  the  church-mem- 
bership of  the  children  does  make  this  very 
prominent.  But  the  congregations  in  this  city 
have  been  richly  blessed  by  revivals.  The  largest 
numerical  increase,  from  the  founding  of  the 
Second  church  down  to  this  day,  has  come 
through  special  awakenings.  The  most  successful 
pastors,  and  the  growing  churches,  have  looked 
for  the  mightily  quickening  presence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  exciting  believers  to  increased  efforts,  and 
converting  many  souls  at  one  time.  They  have 
believed    in    extra   and   continued  meetini^s   for 


172  THE   TERCENTENARY. 

prayer  and  preaching,  by  which  impressione 
might  be  deepened,  and  Satan  and  the  world 
foiled  with  weapons  of  earnestness  and  persistence 
superior  to  their  own.  The  doctrines  to  which 
our  Church  is  so  j)re-eminently  devoted  that  its 
governmental  name  has  become  their  most  noted 
designation  are  emphatically  the  reviving  and 
awakening  truths  of  the  Bible.  The  earnest 
preaching  of  them  has  built  up  our  congregations. 
The  persistent  proclamation  of  them  still,  in  con- 
nection with  those  special  efforts  to  which  the 
Spirit  leads,  will  be  the  means  of  continued 
power. 

IX.  UNION. 
Philadelphia  once  consisted  of  a  number  of  in- 
dependent municipalities,  with  conflicting  in- 
terests and  antagonistic  movements.  But  the 
steady  growth  of  their  population,  and  the  press- 
ing together  of  their  compactly  built  houses, 
welded  and  consolidated  them  into  one  great  mu- 
nicipality. The  older  inhabitants  have  now 
almost  forgotten,  the  younger  have  never  known, 
tlie  boundary  lines  between  the  city  proper  and 
South wark,  Moyamensing,  Passyunk,  Kensington, 
the  Northern  Liberties,  Spring  Garden,  Blockley. 
And  instead  of  Penn's  orio;inal  idea  of  a  town 
with  "  nine  streets,  two  miles  in  length,  running 
east  and  west  from  river  to  river,  and  twenty- 
three  a  mile  long  intersecting  them  at  right  angles 


FRESBYTERIANISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA.       173 

from  north  to  south,"  we  have  a  solid  mass  of 
about  130,000  buildings  that  first  crept  slowly 
away  from  the  Delaware,  and  then  leaped  over 
the  Schuylkill,  and  spread  beyond  Germantown. 
In  this  formerly  divided  country,  as  in  the 
country  at  large,  Presbyterianism  also  had  its 
divei'se  settlements.  Its  adherents  came  from 
England  and  New  England,  from  Scotland,  Ire- 
land and  Wales,  from  Germany,  Holland  and 
France.  They  brought  with  them  different  lan- 
guages and  religious  peculiarities  that  had  grown 
out  of  old  national  questions.  By  these  they 
were  crystallized  into  separate  organizations.  One 
of  these  organizations,  moreover,  twice  divided, 
but  twice  found  it  could  not  remain  divided.  In 
this  city  the  struggle  which  attended  the  second 
disunion,  as  well  as  the  first,  was  sharp.  Here 
the  doctrinal  controversies  which  help)ed  to  rend 
the  national  body  were  brought  to  a  focus.  Here, 
in  the  churches,  the  presbytery,  the  synod  and 
the  Assembly,  there  was  for  years  a  contest  which 
excited  the  feelings  of  our  ministers  and  people, 
and  consumed  power  that  should  have  been  used 
in  aggressive  work  upon  the  world.  Here  sat  the 
two  antagonistic  Assemblies  in  1838.  Here  was 
carried  on  the  strife  in  the  civil  courts  for  le^-al 
recognition.  But  here,  also,  amid  the  enthusiastic 
hospitality  and  the  beaming  joy  of  our  people; 
met  the  one  reunited  Assembly  of  1870.      The 

15  * 


174  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

reunion  then  consummated  is  seamless.  !No  man 
can  mark  the  line  where  the  once  separated  parts 
are  joined  together.  This  reunion  increases 
the  craving  for  a  wider  union,  the  consummation 
of  which  we  fervently  pray  the  Lord  will  hasten. 
And  these  services  are  an  earnest  of  it.  On  this 
memorable  day,  in  the  Seventh  Church,  whose 
Hanstead  Place  edifice  was  the  scene  of  strife 
thirty-four  years  ago,  not  only  those  who  were 
then  torn  apart,  but  members  of  the  other 
branches  of  the  denomination,  unite  in  commem- 
orating great  events  which  make  us  feel  that, 
with  all  our  minor  differences,  we  are  one.  The 
memorials  of  Knox,  of  the  St.  Bartholomew 
martyrs  and  of  the  Wandsworth  Presbytery 
remind  us  of  the  historical  grandeur  of  our  com- 
mon name.  In  faith  and  in  order,  in  heart  and 
in  purpose,  we  ai^e  united.  The  occasion  is  a 
great  and  inspiring  one  for  our  cause  in  this  old 
and  permanent  and  growing  stronghold  of  our 
system.  But  grander  will  be  the  day  which  shall 
witness  the  organic  consolidation  of  us  all  in  one 
Pkesbyteeian  Church  in  the  City  of  Phil- 
adelphia. 


PRESBYTERIAN  ISM 


IN 


The  United   States. 


BY   THE 


Rev.  J.  B.  DALES,  D.  D., 

PASTOR    OF    THE    SECOND    UNITED    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH    OF 
PHILADELPHIA. 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  THE  UNITED 
•     '  STATES. 


rpWELVE  years  ago,  next  month,  there  con- 
-L  vened  in  the  oldest  Presbyterian  church  in 
this  city  one  of  the  largest  assemblies  that  was  ever 
gathered  here  from  that  branch  of  tlie  Church, 
to  commemorate  the  first  meeting  of  the  Gene- 
ral Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  That 
first  Scottish  assembly  was  held  in  the  city  of 
Edinburgh  on  the  20tli  of  December,  1560. 
With  its  six  ministers  and  thirty-four  ruling 
elders,  it  then  began,  in  a  thoroughly  organized 
form,  that  work  which — in  its  never  ceasing  to 
originate  or  foster  general  education,  free  institu- 
tions, civil  liberty  and  the  enlightening,  evangel- 
izing and  thus  elevating  of  all  to  whom  it  comes — 
has  already  long  made  Presbyterianism  to  be  a 
name  and  a  power  of  mighty  import  throughout 
the  world.  Most  a j)propr lately  also  has  tJds  day 
been  set  apart  for  the  commemoration  of  that 
event  which  occurred  at  the  little  villa2:e  of 
Wandsworth,  on   the  Thames,  about  four  miles 

177 


178  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

from  the  city  of  London,  when  on  the  20th  of 
November,  1572,  eleven  elders — some  teaching 
and  some  ruling — gathered  together  and  form- 
ally constituted,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  the  first  presbytery  in  the  history  of 
Presbyterianism  on  purely  English  soil.  That 
event  was  rajDidly  followed,  in  some  of  the  most 
marked  and  effective  senses,  by  the  spreading 
abroad  of  the  simple  word  and  ordinances  of 
grace,  the  raising  up  of  a  band  of  many  of  the 
ablest  and  noblest  of  ministers,  the  infusing  among 
the  masses  of  the  people  the  great  ideas  of  civil 
and  religious  rights  that  have  been  the  crown  and 
the  glory  of  the  British  name,  and  finally  the 
convening  (through  the  Parliament  of  England 
and  the  largely  moulding  influence  of  the  five 
commissioners  from  the  Church  of  Scotland)  of 
that  assembly  of  divines  which  met  in  Jerusalem 
Hall,  Westminster  Abbey,  July  1,  1643.  That 
assembly,  in  the  five  years,  six  months  and 
twenty-one  days  of  its  course,  formed  and  gave 
to  the  world  the  confession  of  faith,  those  mem- 
orable catechisms  and  that  directory  for  worship 
which,  with  some  modifications  and  scarcely  any 
serious  omissions,  have  in  their  subordination  to 
the  holy  Scriptures  constituted  the  broad  and 
unshaken  jilatform  and  bond  of  union  for  Pres- 
byterianism in  every  age  and  on  every  shore  of 
earth  where  it  has  lifted  its  standard  since,  down  to 


THE   UNITED  STATES.  17S 

this  hour.     All  hail,  then,  this  clay,  and  its  great 
work  three  hundred  years  ago ! 

But  passing  to  the  subject  more  especially  as- 
signed for  this  hour — viz.. 

The  History  of  Presbyterianism  in  these 
United  States— it  may  be  stated  here  that,  as 
•if  God  would  have  tliis  then  comparatively  new- 
found   continent  prepared,  almost  from  its  first 
occupancy  and    by  the  character  of  its  earliest 
settlers,  for  becoming,  as  it  has  since  so  largely 
been,  one  of  the  models  of  the  world  for  liberty 
of  conscience,  for  general  education  and  for  uni- 
versal equality  in  civil  and  religious  rights,  he  so 
directed   in   his  Providence  that  a  leading  and 
mighty  element  for  it  all  should  be  in  thorough 
training  and  ready  to  act  well  its  part  when  it 
should  be  called  for.     That  element  we  believe 
was   simple  Presbyterianism— the  Presbyterian- 
ism that  glowed   in   its   letter  and    spirit  upon 
the  sacred    page,  and  that  helped  to    make  the 
early    Christian     churches    the    lights    of    the 
world.     After  the  long  night  of  the  Middle  Ages 
under  the  Eoman  Anti-Christ  also,  and  as  most, 
in  the  very  nature  of  things,  in  identity  with 
that  great  system  of  truth  which  Calvin  drew 
from  the  Bible,  it  was  formally  set  up  by  him 
in    Geneva,  by    Farel  in  France,  by    Knox    in 
Scotland,  and  it  is  believed  would  have  been  in- 
troduced largely  by  Cranmer  in  England  if  he 


180  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

could  have  done  it.  It  was  a  system  that,  in- 
de23endent  alike  of  the  State  and  all  prelatic 
assum23tions,  and  aiming  at  freeing  the  masses 
everywhere  from  the  shackles  of  religious  super- 
stition, from  general  ignorance  and  from  all  spirit- 
ual despotism,  sought  only  to  educate  and  really 
elevate  men  to  their  best  estate.  While  pointing  to 
the  horrid  atrocities  of  France  and  Holland,  to  the 
fires  of  the  Bloody  Mary  at  Smithfield,  to  the 
little  less  than  fiendish  jDersecutions  of  the  min- 
ions of  Charles  in  Scotland,  and  to  the  unprinci- 
pled and  outrageous  wrongs  perpetrated  upon  the 
nonconformists  of  England  in  England's  shame- 
ful and  dark  Bartholomew's  day — August  24th, 
1662 — it  showed  itself  the  unalterable  enemy  of 
all  these,  and  that  it  possessed  an  unshrinking  and 
mighty  power  to  hold  to  truth,  to  freedom  and  to 
God — never  so  firm  as  in  the  conflict,  never  so 
really  great  as  when  in  the  fire. 

This  was  the  element  called  for ;  and  accord- 
ingly, at  a  time  when  prelacy,  with  its  kingly 
affinities,  its  aristocratic  ideas  and  its  Church 
exclusiveness,  and  when  Romanism,  with  its 
often  lamb-like  beginnings  for  later  deadly 
workings,  were  already  in  the  field  or  preparing 
for  it,  God  seemed  to  sift  the  Old  World 
that  he  might  gather  out  the  most  severely 
tested  and  tried  to  settle  the  New.  Such 
were  the  Huguenots   of  France,  the  Reformed 


THE   UNITED  STATES.  181 

of  Holland,  the  Puritans  of  England,  some  of 
the  Germans  of  Central  Europe  and  successive 
generations  of  many  of  the  noblest  and  best  of 
Scotland,  and  in  still  larger  numbers  good  men 
and  true  from  the  north  of  Ireland,  whom  he 
manifestly  led  to  find  homes  for  themselves  and 
their  long  lines  of  descendants,  and  thus  to  plant 
the  Presbyterianism  of  their  Church  and  their  love 
in  the  midst  of  the  New  World.  That  these 
representatives  of  different  nations  were  Presby- 
terian is  beyond  any  question. 

In  the  case  of  the  Protestants  of  France,  be- 
sides owing  very  largely  their  knowledge  of  the 
gospel  to  Calvin  and  his  associates,  it  is  a  well- 
attested  fact  that  at  the  first  meeting  of  the  synod 
of  the  French  Protestant  Church,  which  was 
held  on  the  25th  of  May,  1559,  in  the  city  of 
Paris,  the  form  of  church  government  adopted 
was  thoroughly  Presbyterian  in  all  its  parts. 
The  ruling  as  well  as  the  teaching  elder  was  dis- 
tinctly recognized.  The  perfect  parity  of  all 
ministers  was  as  distinctly  declared ;  and  in  the 
constitution  of  the  church  courts,  the  "  consistory," 
which  was  required  to  be  elected  by  the  people  over 
which  it  was  to  rule,  corresponded  exactly  with  the 
session,  the  ''  colloquy ''  with  the  presbytery,  and 
the  "  national  synod  "  with  the  General  Assembly. 

In  Holland  also  not  only  was  the  whole  system 

of  theology  and   church  polity,  as  given  to  the 

ifi 


182  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

world  by  the  synod  of  Dort  in  1618,  and  de- 
clared to  be  the  doctrinal  basis  of  the  Reformed 
Church  of  Holland,  thoroughly  Calvinistic,  but  it 
was  as  decidedly  Presbyterian.  Its  "consistory  '^ 
was  identical  with  the  session  and  its  "classis"  with 
the  presbytery.  So,  too,  the  Puritans  of  England 
were  long  after  their  rise  unquestionably  largely 
Presbyterian.  Robinson  distinctly  affirmed  that 
his  church  at  Leyden — the  mother  church  of  the 
Plymouth  colony — was  of  the  same  government 
as  the  Protestant  Church  of  France.  Fourteen 
years  before  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers 
in  New  England,  Brewster  was  chosen  an  elder 
by  the  congregation;  and  when,  nearly  two  years 
afterward,  or  in  1609,  he  was  chosen  also  to  be 
an  assistant  of  Pobinson,  he  declined  to  adminis- 
ter the  sacraments  expressly  on  the  ground  that 
the  ruling  elder's  office,  which  he  held,  did  not 
entitle  him  to  do  that  which  he  believed  belonged 
only  to  the  minister  or  teaching  elder.  With 
this  office  and  with  these  views,  Brewster  came  to 
this  country  with  the  Pilgrim  colony,  and  thus 
he  helped  to  form  the  Plymouth  church.  Thence- 
forward for  a  long  period,  acting  on  this  princi- 
ple, the  early  churches  in  Salem,  Charlestown, 
Boston  and  elsewhere  in  New  England,  had 
ruling  elders,  while,  in  1646  and  1680  respect- 
ively, all  the  ministers  and  an  elder  from  each 
church  met  in  synod  at  Cambridge,  and  by  dis- 


THE    UNITED  STATES.  183 

tinct  act  recognized  the  Presbyterian  form  of 
church  government.  They  went  so  far,  especially 
in  the  synod  of  1680,  as  to  adopt  the  confession 
of  faith  of  the  Westminster  Assembly  of  divines. 
In  high  loyalty  to  Presbyterian  ism  also,  as  no 
one  ever  doubted,  was  every  emigrant  to  this 
country  from  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  that 
no  less  noble  body,  the  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Ireland. 

Such  were  the  leading  men,  in  their  general 
views  of  doctrine  and  church  government,  at  the 
times  they  successively  sought  the  settlement  of 
this  Western  world.  However  much  these  views 
may  have  since  been  modified  and  changed,  and 
even  disapproved,  by  some  of  their  successors,  in 
the  lapse  of  these  300  years,  yet  such  were  always 
largely  the  well-known  Huguenots,  who,  after 
the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  by  the 
perfidious  Louis  XIV.,  on  the  22d  of  October, 
1685,  emigrated  in  considerable  numbers  to  this 
country,  and  settling  more  especially  in  the  city 
of  New  York  and  its  vicinity,  and  in  South  Caro- 
lina, laid  the  foundations  of  some  of  the  earliest 
Presbyterian  churches  and  gave  to  the  country 
some  of  the  noblest  names  that  have  adorned  its 
pulpit  and  honored  its  national  halls.  Such  un- 
questionably were  the  early  settlei's  from  the  Re- 
formed Church  of  Holland,  especially  in  New 
York  and  New  Jersey;    such  also  in  good  degree 


184  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

were  even  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  as  seen  in  the 
further  Ikct  that  even  down  to  these  days,  in  va- 
rious parts  of  New  England,  "  Presbyterian," 
"  Independent"  and  "  Congregational]* st"  are  terms 
interchangeably  used  ;  and  such  were  largely  the 
Protestant  emigrants  from  Scotland  and  Ireland, 
who  settled  in  various  parts  of  New  England  and 
more  generally  in  the  Middle  and  Southern  States, 
showing  that  the  Presbyterian  element  had  much 
to  do  in  the  settling  of  the  largest  and  most  influ- 
ential portions  of  our  country. 

From  all  this,  however,  we  turn  gratefully  to- 
day to  trace  the  Presbyterian  system  as  it  so 
earnestly  and  with  such  important  results  flowed 
to  this  country  from  the  Presbyterian  churches 
of  Scotland  and  the  synod  of  Ulster  in  Ireland. 
Doubtless  at  first  the  early  coming  of  Presbyte- 
rianism  hither  was  largely  in  the  person  of  indi- 
viduals, sometimes  seeking  an  improvement  of 
their  worldly  condition,  sometimes  longing  for  a 
freer  air  and  a  wider  range  of  spiritual  privileges, 
and  sometimes  forced,  as  by  the  savage  heartless- 
ness  and  cruelty  of  a  Claverhouse  and  Dalzell, 
when,  set  on  like  hounds  from  the  kennel  of  a 
royal  Charles  and  a  prelatic  Laud,  they  hunted 
for  the  life's  blood  of  many  of  the  most  eminent 
saints  of  God.  But  from  whatever  cause,  they 
came,  sometimes  singly,  sometimes  in  families,  and 
sometimes  in  congregations,  as  when,  on  the  16th 


THE   UNITED  STATES.  185 

of  May,  1764,  the  Presbyterian  church  of  Bally- 
bay  in  Ireland  rose  up,  pastor,  elders  and  members, 
and  sailing  as  they  were,  about  300  in  number, 
from  Newry,  came  to  this  country  and  settled  down 
in  Salem,  Washington  county.  New  York,  and 
never  to  this  day  have  had  any  other  organization 
than  that  they  then  brought  with  them. 

Early,  however,  from  these  emigrating  bands,  as 
they  remembered  the  ways  of  Zion  from  which 
they  had  been  so  far  removed  and  longed  to  be 
led  again  by  tlie  still  waters  and  in  the  green  pas- 
tures of  the  means  of  grace  that  had  so  gladdened 
their  early  days,  and  to  which  under  God  they 
felt  they  owed  their  all,  there  now  often  went 
back  earnest  and  entreating  calls  for  ministers  to 
come  over  and  help  them.  Nor  were  these  calls 
in  vain.  Touched  with  the  pressing  necessities  of 
the  case,  and  in  many  instances  yearning  for  these 
people  as  for  far-off  sheep  of  their  flocks,  minis- 
ters themselves  sometimes  rose  up ;  and  though  it 
was  felt,  and  probably  was,  in  reality,  of  far  greater 
hazard  and  hardship  to  undertake  that  mission 
then  than  it  would  be  now  to  go  to  the  heathen 
world,  yet  many  good  and  faithful  men  did  it,  and 
came.  Sometimes,  too,  church  courts  solemnly 
appointed  men  to  this  work,  and  so  rigidly  did 
they  exact  compliance  with  their  appointments 
that  again  and  again  they  severely  disciplined 
those  who  failed  to  go  as  the  destitute  had  called, 

10* 


186  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

and  as  the  courts  of  the  Lord's  house  had  com- 
manded. 

Nor  was  this  course  without  its  weighty  fruits. 
Ahnost  all  the  early  ministers  w^ere  from  abroad. 
In  the  very  first  Presbytery  that  was  organized, 
five  of  the  only  six  ministers  that  composed  it 
were  from  the  Presbyterian  churches  of  Ireland 
and  Scotland.  More  than  half  a  century  after- 
ward every  one  of  the  first  members  of  the  Asso- 
ciate, the  Reformed  Presbyterian  and  the  Associ- 
ate Reformed  presbyteries,  and  indeed  of  all  the 
earlier  synods  of  these  churches,  w^as  directly 
from  these  old  churches  of  the  fatherlands,  while 
all  their  doctrinal  and  ecclesiastical  features  bore 
the  clearest  impress  and  type  of  their  stern  and 
noble  originals.  Nor  is  this  all.  Much  as  is  the 
credit  due  to  other  religious  systems  and  to  colo- 
nists from  other  lands,  yet  never  will  the  United 
States  fully  know  how  much  is  owed  to  these  men 
and  their  immediate  descendants  in  the  early  in- 
tegrity of  the  people,  in  the  stern  and  unyielding 
form  of  our  Republican  government,  in  the  origi- 
nating and  fostering  of  the  highest  style  of  liberal, 
educational  and  reformatory  institutions,  and  in 
the  enunciation  and  maintenance  of  the  princi- 
ples of  civil  and  religious  freedom  of  the  most 
ennobling  character  and  for  the  largest  numbers 
of  the  masses  of  the  people. 

In  that  long  list  was  the  Rev.  Francis  McKemie 


THE   UNITED  STATES.  187 

from  Ireland,  a  man  whom  no  blandishments  of 
favor  or  threats  of  prisons  by  the  prelatic  gov- 
ernor of  New  York  conld  either  entice  or  terrify ; 
an  Anderson,  who,  when  Episcopacy  would  not 
grant  (as  lately  as  in  1720)  an  incorporation  to 
Presbyterianism  in  the  now  magnificent  metropo- 
lis of  our  country,  and  would  not  allow  even  the 
ground  upon  which  it  might  build  a  house  for  the 
worship  of  God,  boldly  took  it  himself  and  made 
it  over  to  the  Church  of  Scotland,  to  be  held  by 
it  for  a  Presbyterian  church  in  New  York ;  a 
Gillespie,  whom  the  godly  Allison  of  this  city 
styled  "  that  pious  saint  of  God "  ;  a  William 
Tennent,  of  whom  Whitefield  said,  "  I  can  say  of 
him  and  his  brethren  as  David  did  of  Goliath's 
sword  '  none  like  them ' ; "  and  later  a  Wither- 
spoon  that  towered  among  his  fellows  in  almost 
unequaled  splendor,  whether  he  be  viewed  as  a 
herald  of  the  cross,  a  signer  of  the  Declaration 
of  American  Independence,  or  as  president  of 
the  College  of  New  Jersey.  Then  came  Marshall 
and  Annan  and  Proudfit  and  the  Masons,  father 
and  son,  two  men  among  the  wisest  and  ablest 
that  have  ever  filled  an  American  pulpit  or 
pastorate,  or  adorned  a  theological  chair ;  and 
then  a  Dobbin  and  McKinney  and  Black  and 
McLeod  and  a  Samuel  B.  Wylie,  who  so  lately 
still  walked  among  us  esteemed  and  hon- 
ored of  all.     Still  later  we  have  the  livinsj  men 


188  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

of  this  day  and  of  not  less  mighty  strength — a 
Hall,  whom  the  electric  telegraph  so  recently 
brought  from  Ireland  to  fill  one  of  the  best  of 
pulj^its  with  the  simplest  but  weightiest  preaching 
of  the  cross,  and  that  other  honored  name  with 
Scottish  blood  that  this  day  stands  among  us  one 
of  the  very  first  in  the  list  of  able  educators  and 
great  men  that  have  presided  over  Princeton's 
Nassau  Hall. 

But  why  jDarticularize  further  the  men  who, 
crossing  the  wide  ocean  that  separated  us  from  the 
Old  World,  started  at  the  first  and  ever  since 
have  fondly  cherished,  in  deepest  sympathy  with 
all  the  right-hearted  and  good  of  our  own 
country,  everything  that  was  truly  inviting  and 
promising  in  letters  and  morals,  in  State  and  in 
Church,  for  all  in  this  land  and  to  all  the  world  ? 

Nor  is  it  of  less  marked  interest  to  trace  the 
commencement,  progress  and  present  state  of 
Presbyterianism  in  its  several  branches  in  the 
United  States.  Branches,  we  say,  for  on  this  day 
of  grateful  comminglings  of  hearts  and  hands  it 
is  to  be  mentioned  with  regret  that  as  scarcely 
sooner  had  Protestantism  emerged  from  the  long 
night  of  Dark  Ages,  and  taken  form  as  it  did  in 
the  beginning  of  the  great  Beformation,  than  there 
began  to  be  differences  of  views,  and  at  length 
parties  and  separate  bodies,  as  was  seen  in  the 
churches  of  Germany,  France,  Holland  and  Brit- 


THE   UNITED  STATES.  189 

ain, — as,  too,  in  later  times,  the  Presbyterian 
Church  tJiat  had  stood  forth  so  nobly  one  in  Scot- 
land in  1560,  became  divided  into  several  parts, 
— so  here,  even  while  the  colonial  governments 
were  still  existing,  these  separate  branches  or 
parts  of  the  originally  one  Church  were  found 
taking  type  from  the  churches  in  the  mother 
countries  and  starting  up  in  this  land,  sometimes, 
too  with  a  lamentable  degree  of  rancor  and  dis- 
tance from  one  another  such  as  should  never 
have  characterized  those  that  had  so  often  rallied 
together  in  the  conflicts  for  truth,  for  freedom  and 
for  right  under  the  blue  banner  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland  and  Presbyterian  Ulster,  and  to  the 
heart-rousing  cry,  "  For  Christ's  crown  and  cove- 
nant." 

First  in  this  list  in  date  and  deserved  promi- 
nence and  influence  stands  the  Presbyterian,  or 
as  many  love  in  the  depths  of  their  hearts 
to  hail  it  now.  The  Reunited  Presbyterian 
Church.  Its  first  presbytery  was  organized  in 
this  city  some  time  between  the  years  1698  and 
1705,  and  embraced  six  ministers,  four  of  w^hom 
exercised  their  office  on  the  Eastern  Shore  of 
Maryland,  one  in  New  Castle,  Delaware,  and  the 
other  in  this  city.  It  was  a  day  of  small  things, 
but  time  passed  on,  and  on  the  17th  of  Septem- 
ber, 1717,  when  that  one  presbytery  had  swelled 
out  into    three — viz.,   Philadelphia,  New  Castle 


190  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

and  Long  Island — then  nineteen  ministers,  and 
more  or  less  of  ruling  elders  with  them,  convened 
in  this  city  and  formed  the  first  pu7'ely  Presbyte- 
rian  synod  in  these  United  States — the  synod  of 
Philadelphia. 

Again  time  passed  on,  and  on  the  21st  of  May, 
1789,  when  the  one  presbytery  had  grown  into 
sixteen,  and  the  one  synod  into  four — viz..  New 
York,  New  Jersey,  Philadelphia,  Virginia  and 
the  Carolinas — thirty-one  duly  appointed  dele- 
gates, consisting  of  21  ministers  and  10  elders, 
met  in  the  Second  Presbyterian  church  in  this 
city.  After  a  sermon  by  the  venerable  Dr.  John 
Witherspoon  from  1  Cor.  iii.  7,  the  first  General 
Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
United  States  was  constituted,  and  the  Kev.  Dr. 
John  Rogers,  of  New  York,  was  chosen  the  first 
moderator. 

Still  time  passed  on,  and  now,  though  there  have 
been  trials  that  have  sometimes  shaken  to  its 
foundations  almost  every  ecclesiastical  organiza- 
tion, and  agitations  and  strifes  that  at  times  have 
wellnigh  overwhelmed  the  country  and  its  gov- 
ernment, yet  that  Church  has  held  on  her  way 
until  this  day,  her  heralds  preach  the  gospel  in 
nearly  every  State  and  Territory  in  all  this  land, 
her  influence  is  felt  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  and 
her  organization  is  among  the  first  and  mightiest 
of  the  Presbyterian  bodies  in  forming  one  of  the 


THE   UNITED  STATES.  19J 

brightest  and  most  widely-sliiniug  and  nobly  use- 
ful lights  of  the  world. 

Next  in  order  of  time  and  in  present  numbers 
IS  The  United  Presbyterian  Church.  This 
church  is  composed  of  the  Associate  and  Associ- 
ate Reformed  churches.  In  the  Associate  the  first 
ministers  to  labor  in  this  country  were  Alexander 
Gellatly  and  Andrew  Arnott,  who  came  under 
appointment  from  the  Anti-Burgher  synod  in 
Scotland,  and  on  petitions  urgently  sent  from  New 
London,  Octorara  and  other  places  in  Eastern 
Pennsylvania.  They  landed  in  Philadelphia  in 
the  summer  of  1753,  and  in  the  following  No- 
vember organized,  as  the  synod  had  instructed 
them,  a  presbytery  entitled  the  "Associate  presby- 
tery of  Pennsylvania,  subordinate  to  the  Associate 
synod  of  Edinburgh."  Most  earnestly  thence  did 
they  devote  themselves  to  their  work,  and  others 
steadily  joined  them.  On  the  20th  of  May,  1776, 
their  number  had  grown  to  thirteen.  The  pres- 
bytery was  then  divided  into  two — viz.,  Pennsyl- 
vania and  New  York.  And  now  a  crisis  came. 
On  the  outbreak  of  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  it 
was  found  that  communications  could  not  be  kept 
up  with  the  mother  Church  at  home,  that  minis- 
ters could  not  be  had  from  abroad  to  meet  the  press- 
ing calls  for  them  on  every  side,  and  that  the  feel- 
ings of  patriotism  which  so  largely  glowed  in  the 
bosoms  of  ministers  and  people  for  the  country  of 


192  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

their  adoption  could  not  be  repressed.  It  wag 
deejily  felt  that  they  should  have  a  separate  and 
independent  existence — an  existence  adapted  to 
their  condition  and  necessities  in  this  land.  Ac- 
cordingly, negotiations  Avere  entered  into  for  a 
union  with  the  presbytery  of  the  Reformed  Pres- 
byterian Church — a  presbytery  that  had  been  or- 
ganized in  1774  with  three  ministerial  members, 
one  from  Scotland  and  two  from  Ireland.  These 
negotiations  were  partially  successful ;  and  at 
length,  at  Pequa,  Pennsylvania,  on  the  13th  of 
June,  1782,  a  union  was  consummated,  and  the 
new  organization  stood  forth  with  a  name  from 
its  two  composing  parts  combined,  viz.,  The  Asso- 
ciate Reformed  Church. 

Unhappily,  however,  this  union  was  not  com- 
plete. Each  body  had  its  opposing  parts,  and 
thus  both  the  Associate  and  Reformed  Presbyte- 
rian bodies  were  perpetuated. 

But  that  Associate  Reformed,  or,  as  it  was  long 
and  widely  termed,  "  the  Union  Church,"  held  on 
its  way  and  did  good  service.  In  October,  1783, 
its  three  presbyteries  and  fourteen  ministers  were 
organized  into  a  synod  called  "  The  Associate 
Reformed  Synod  of  North  America."  At  its 
meeting  in  Green  Castle,  Pennsylvania,  May  31, 
1799,  this  synod  issued  its  formal  standards,  con- 
sisting of  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith, 
unchanged  except  in  regard  to  the  civil  magis- 


THE   UNITED  STATES.  193 

tracv ;  the  catechisms  and  the  directories  for 
church  government  and  divine  worship,  simplified 
or  adapted  to  present  circumstances  ;  and  then  the 
whole  was  styled  "  The  Constitution  and  Stand- 
ards of  the  Associate  Reformed  Church  in  North 
America." 

Three  years  afterward  the  synod  was  divided 
into  four,  and  in  May,  1804,  delegates  from  each 
of  the  eight  presbyteries — viz.,  Washington,  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  Big  Sj)ring,  Kentucky,  Mo- 
nongahela  and  First  and  Second  Carolinas — met 
at  Green  Castle,  Pennsylvania,  and  formed  the 
General  Synod  of  this  Church.  At  this  its  first 
meeting  it  was  resolved  to  establish  a  theological 
seminary. 

On  the  first  Monday  of  November,  1805,  there 
was  formally  opened,  in  the  city  of  New  York, 
that  theological  institution  which  thence,  under 
Dr.  J.  M.  Mason,  gave  to  the  American  Church 
J.  M.  Matthews,  W.  W.  Phillips,  George  Junkin, 
Samuel  Findley,  David  Macdill,  John  T.  Pressly, 
D.  C.  McLaren,  Joseph  McCarrell,  and  many 
other  expositors  of  the  word  of  God  and  educators 
of  men  as  able  as  any  whom  this  country  has  pro- 
duced. Thence  through  successive  clianges  this 
Church  pursued  its  course,  at  one  time  nearly  con- 
summating a  union  with  the  Presbyterian  Church 
(in  1822)  ;  then  at  a  later  day  gathering  up  all  its 
own  scattered  fragments,  with  the  single  exception 

17 


194  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

of  the  synod  of  the  South  ;  and  in  May,  1855,  it 
entered  into  a  happy  General  Synod  again.  It  had 
theological  seminaries  at  Newburgh,  New  York, 
Allegheny  City,  Pennsylvania,  Oxford,  Ohio,  and 
Monmouth,  Illinois,  and  prosecuted  well  its  work 
both  in  the  home  and  foreign  field.  At  length, 
when  three-quarters  of  a  century  had  rolled  away, 
and  nearly  twenty  years  of  j)rayerful  negotiation 
had  been  carried  on,  this  Associate  Reformed  and 
the  Associate  Church  (from  which  in  fact  it  really 
came,  and  with  which  it  was  ever  largely  one  in 
psalmody,  communion  and  other  great  matters  of 
faith  and  practice)  now,  with  great  cordiality  and 
new  life,  most  happily  flowed  together  in  the  city 
of  Pittsburg,  and  on  the  26th  of  May,  1858, 
formed  "  The  United  Presbyterian  Church  of 
North  America" — a  Church  that  has  now  8  syn- 
ods, b5  presbyteries,  641  ministers  and  licentiates, 
755  churches  and  72,896  communicants,  with 
boards  of  home  and  foreign  missions,  education, 
publication  and  church  extension,  593  Sabbath- 
schools,  with  53,288  scholars  in  them,  property 
valued  at  $4,096,000,  and  a  total  of  contributions 
during  last  year  of  $869,136,  or  an  average  of 
$11.92  from  each  member,  and  an  average  salary 
of  $898.29  for  every  pastor  within  its  bounds. 

Next  in  the  Presbyterian  family  stands  The 
Reformed  Presbyterian  Church.  Its  first 
minister  was  the  He  v.  John  Cuthbertson,  from 


THE   UNITED  STATES.  195 

the  Keformed  presbytery  in  Scotland,  who  landed 
in  this  country  in  1752.  Its  first  presbytery  was 
organized  in  1774.  In  1782  all  its  ministers 
united  with  all  the  Associate  ministers,  except 
Revds.  Wm.  Marshall  and  Thomas  Clarkson,  in 
forming  the  Associate  Reformed  Church.  But 
other  ministers  came  from  both  Scotland  and  Ire- 
land, and  in  1798  the  presbytery  was  reorganized 
under  the  title  The  Reformed  Presbytery  of 
North  America. 

Ten  years  passed  away,  when  with  a  good  in- 
crease of  devoted  ministers,  and  the  one  presby- 
tery grown  into  three,  the  synod  of  the  Reformed 
Presbyterian  Church  was  organized  May  24, 
1809 ;  and  in  1825  the  General  Synod,  a  body 
to  be  composed  of  delegates  from  the  several  pres- 
byteries. 

Eight  years  afterward,  or  in  1833,  an  unhappy 
division  took  place  in  this  Church,  mainly  on  the 
question  of  civil  government,  one  body  styling  it- 
self the  Synod  and  the  other  the  General  Synod 
of  the  Reformed  Presbyterian  Church.  In  the 
former,  "  The  Synod,"  there  are  100  congregations, 
90  ministers,  403  elders,  221  deacons,  8782  com- 
municants, 4581  Sabbath-school  scholars.  Its 
total  of  contributions  for  the  past  year  were 
$201,532.11,  and  it  has  one  college,  one  theologi- 
cal seminary,  together  with  an  influential  mission 
at   Latakia  and    its  vicinity    in   Syria.     In   the 


196  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

latter,  "  the  General  Synod,"  there  are  nearly  50 
congregations,  42  ministers  and  licentiates,  one 
divinity  school  and  a  very  useful  foreign  mission, 
in  connection  with  the  Presbyterian  Church,  in 
India. 

With  these  branches  of  the  Presbyterian  family 
there  should  also  be  mentioned  The  Associate 
Peformed  Synod  of  the  South — a  body  that 
was  originally  one  of  the  four  synods  of  the  Gen- 
eral Synod  of  the  Associate  Reformed  Church. 
Since  1821  it  has  been  an  independent  synod. 
At  present  it  has  70  ministers,  churches  in  nearly 
every  State  in  the  South,  and  a  college  and  theo- 
logical seminary  at  Due  West,  South  Carolina. 

Besides  these  branches  of  the  Presbyterian 
stock,  there  is  also  The  Cumberland  Presbyte- 
rian Church.  This  church  had  its  origin  in 
difficulties  within  the  bounds  of  the  presbytery  of 
Transylvania,  in  Kentucky,  near  the  beginning 
of  this  century.  Its  first  meeting  of  presbytery 
was  held  February  4,  1810.  Its  first  synod  was 
formed  in  1813,  and  its  first  General  Assembly  in 
May,  1829.  Last  year  it  had  1116  ministers,  1863 
congregations,  96,335  communicants,  26,466  chil- 
dren in  its  Sabbath-schools,  and  five  colleges  and 
theological  seminaries. 

It  only  remains  to  say  that  the  General  Assem- 
bly of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United 
States,  generally  known  as  the  "  Southern  Pres- 


THE   UNITED  STATES.  197 

byterian  Church,"  a  thoroughly  Presbyterian 
body,  has  had  a  separate  existence  since  the  year 
1861.  It  had  its  origin  in  the  state  of  things 
that  accompanied  and  was  due  to  the  late  unhappy 
war.  It  embraces  a  most  important  section  of 
country  in  the  Southern  States  of  our  Union,  and 
is  doing  a  good  home  and  foreign  work.  It  has 
at  present  11  synods,  6Q  presbyteries,  912  minis- 
ters and  licentiates,  1545  churches,  91,208  com- 
municants, 55,943  children  in  its  Sabbath-schools, 
and  last  year  raised  an  annual  contribution  for 
benevolent  purposes  of  $1,034,390. 

Such  is  the  Presbyterian  ism  of  these  United 
States,  and,  in  brief,  its  history  and  present  con- 
dition. Here  we  might  close,  but  that  injustice 
would  be  done  to  the  Church  that  bears  this  name 
and  to  this  occasion,  if  we  did  not  notice  for  a  few 
minutes  some  of  the  characteristic  facts  in  its  his- 
tory. I  refer  to  the  "  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
United  States  of  America." 

1.  Its  Origin  was  in  a  marked  sense  of  God. 
Its  early  ministers  were  almost  without  exception 
asked  for  of  God  and  of  the  mother  Church  at 
home.  In  some  instances  seasons  of  solemn  fast- 
ing and  prayer,  with  the  single  burdened  desire 
of  the  worshipers  that  God  would  send  them 
ministers.  God  heard  their  prayers,  ministers 
came,  churches  were  organized,  and  thus  it  waa 
largely  in  answer  to  prayer  that  the  Presbyterian 

17* 


198  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

Church  was  thoroughly  planted,  on  what,  under 
the  blessing  of  God,  has  richly  proved  to  her  the 
fruitful  soil  of  this  western  world. 

2.  This  Church  has  been  emphatically  one  of 
Progress.  In  their  ordinary  privileges  the  first 
members  of  this  Church  were  exceedingly  limited 
and  tried.  Even  their  privileges  were  in  the 
most  meagre  forms.  Says  Dr.  Wines  :  "  Their  first 
temples  were  the  shady  groves,  and  their  first 
pulpits  a  rude  tent  made  of  rough  slabs,  Avhile  the 
audience  sat  either  upon  logs  or  the  green  turf. 
Not  even  log  churches  were  erected  until  about 
the  year  1790.  Even  in  winter  the  meetings 
were  held  in  the  open  air.  Not  one  in  ten  had 
the  luxury  of  a^  overcoat.  The  most  were  obliged 
to  wear  blankets  or  coverlets  instead."  Now  there 
are  thousands  of  well-built  and  convenient  houses 
of  worship,  some  of  which  are  among  the  most 
magnificent  in  the  country.  In  numbers,  too, 
what  a  change  has  taken  place!  At  the  first 
meeting  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church,  May  21,  1789,  there  were  4  syn- 
ods, 23  presbyteries,  177  ministers  and  licentiates, 
and  419  congregations.  Now  in  the  same  body 
there  are  35  synods,  166  presbyteries,  4441  min- 
isters, 323  licentiates,  4730  churches,  and  a  mem- 
bership of  468,164  communicants.  Then  there 
was  not  in  all  its  bounds  a  single  Sabbath-school, 
in  the  modern  sense  of  the  term ;  now  there  are 


THE   UNITED  STATES.  199 

large  numbers  of  tliem,  with  485,762  scholars. 
Then  the  whole  sum  reported  at  the  first  meeting 
of  the  assembly  as  contributed  during  the  pre- 
vious year  was  £176  7s.  6d. ;  now,  at  the  meeting 
in  May  last,  the  sum  re]3orted  was  a  total  of 
$10,086,526.  Even  the  minutes  of  that  first 
General  Assembly,  as  published,  are  comprised  in 
a  printed  abstract  of  six  pages,  while  those  of  the 
assembly  of  May  last  swell  out  into  a  volume  of 
464  pages. 

Nothing  behind  this  have  been  the  signs  of 
progress  in  other  branches  of  the  Presbyterian 
family.  At  the  first  meeting  of  the  Associate 
synod,  which  was  organized  in  Philadelphia,  May, 
1801,  there  were  17  ministers  in  all,  in  4  presby- 
teries— viz.,  Philadelphia,  Chartiers,  Kentucky 
and  Cambridge.  In  the  Associate  Reformed 
Church,  at  the  time  of  its  first  synod,  which  was 
held  in  Philadelphia  in  October,  1782,  there  were 
14  ministers  and  3  presbyteries.  At  the  time  of 
their  union,  however,  in  1858,  there  were  in  the 
former  body  21  presbyteries,  198  ordained  minis- 
ters, 293  congregations  and  23,505  communicants, 
and  in  the  latter,  one  General  Synod,  4  synods,  28 
presbyteries,  253  ordained  ministers,  367  congre- 
gations and  31,284  communicants.  At  the  first 
meeting,  in  1782  and  1801  respectively,  there  was 
not  in  either  of  these  synods  a  single  religious 
publication  of  any  kind  or  any  foreign  mission. 


200  THE   TERCENTENARY. 

and  only  one  theological  seminary.  At  the  time 
of  their  late  union  there  were  in  them  together,  2 
monthly  periodicals  and  4  weekly  newspapers,  4 
foreign  missions,  with  9  foreign  missionaries  and 
their  families,  and  4  theological  seminaries. 

In  the  Keformed  Presbyterian  Church  also, 
which  in  1782  was  left  without  a  single  minister, 
and  at  the  reorganization  of  its  presbyteries  in 
1798  had  only  3  ministers  in  all  its  j)ai'ts,  there 
are  now  132  ministers,  about  150  congregations, 
15,872  communicants,  and  a  total  contribution 
during  the  past  year  to  the  cause  of  Christ  of 
about  $300,000. 

While,  however,  these  contrasts  may  well  be 
gratefully  noticed,  yet  it  may  be  questioned  for  a 
moment  whether  all  this  progress  has  been  in 
every  respect  a  real  or  even  a  desirable  gain.  For 
instance:  while  of  the  1116  ministers  of  the 
Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church  last  year  only 
241  had  pastoral  settlements  and  876  were  without 
'padoral  charges  (though  largely  with  charges,  as 
stated  supplies),  and  while  this  unsettled,  non-pas- 
toral state  characterizes  a  large  body  of  the  minis- 
ters in  several  of  the  Presbyterian  bodies  of  this 
day,  yet  in  those  early  times  nearly  every  min- 
ister had  his  congregation  as  a  ]3astor,  or  was 
thoroughly  engaged  in  the  evangelist's  hard  work 
over  widely-extended  sections  of  country.  While 
now  there  are  often  strong  temptations  for  minis- 


THE   UNITED  STATES.  201 

ters  to  preach  in  the  essay  and  perhaps  sensational 
style,  then  the  aim  seemed  to  be,  under  a  deep 
sense  of  the  awful  responsibilities  of  the  ministe- 
rial office  and  the  necessities  of  the  hearers,  simply 
to  expound  the  word  of  God,  and  Avith  that  word, 
as  the  only  sword  of  the  Spirit,  to  deal  with  the 
consciences  and  the  souls  of  men.  While  now 
the  candidate  for  the  ministry  often  seems  to  have 
little  more  to  do  than  listen  to  lectures  and  have 
the  professors  do  much  or  perhaps  most  of  the 
hard  studying,  then  young  men  were  largely 
taken  in  the  charge  of  particular  ministers  and 
trained  by  the  very  hardest  toils  and  trials  in 
the  practice  as  well  as  the  theory  both  of  the  pul- 
pit and  the  j)astorate.  In  one  word,  then  religion 
had  far  fewer  attractions  in  its  outward  forms  and 
far  less  of  ease  in  the  performance  of  its  manifold 
duties.  But  it  may  well  be  asked  whether  it  had 
not,  in  the  hands  of  a  McKemie,  a  Davies,  a  Fin- 
ley,  a  Tennent,  a  Marshall,  a  McMillan,  a  Mc- 
Leod,  the  Masons,  and  a  host  of  others  of  like 
precious  faith  and  zeal,  more  of  a  living,  mighty 
reality  and  power  within  and  without — in  the 
pulpit  and  in  the  world. 

3.  The  Presbyterian  Church  has  evei-  had  a 
deep  concern  for  general  Educatio^^,  and  espe- 
cially for  an  educated  ministry.  In-  no  sense 
could  she  have  been  true  to  her  noble  descent  from 
the  synod  of  Ulster  and  from  Scotland  had  it  been 


202  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

otherwise.  Almost  from  the  very  beginning  of 
the  organization  of  any  of  her  bodies  in  this 
country,  steps  were  taken  in  this  direction. 
Hence  Tennent  was  early  at  work  in  his  Log  Col- 
lege on  the  Neshaminy,  Blair  at  Fogg's  Manor, 
Pennsylvania,  Finley  at  West  Nottingham, 
Maryland,  and  the  gradual  foundation  of  the 
College  of  New  Jersey  was  laid  first  at  Elizabeth, 
New  Jersey,  in  1746,  then  in  Newark  in  1747, 
and  finally  at  Princeton,  1757. 

All  these,  with  similar  institutions  in  Western 
Pennsylvania  and  as  far  south  as  Kentucky  and 
the  Carolinas,  were  Presbyterian,  and  all  aimed 
specially  and  first  of  all,  besides  promoting  general 
education,  to  raise  up  a  well-trained  ministry.  So 
with  theological  seminaries  also ;  for  while  for  a 
long  period  young  men  studied  with  certain  min- 
isters privately,  under  direction  of  presbytery,  yet 
as  early  as  1784  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church 
took  steps  for  the  founding  of  a  theological  semi- 
nary, first  in  New  York  and  afterward  in  New 
Brunswick,  New  Jersey,  appointing  the  Rev.  Dr. 
John  H.  Livingston  to  be  its  first  professor.  The 
Associate  Church  in  1794  founded  its  first  semi- 
nary at  Service  Creek,  Beaver  county,  Pennsylva- 
nia, with  the  happiest  results,  and  placed  the  Rev. 
Dr.  John  Anderson  at  its  head.  The  Associate 
Reformed  Church  in  1805  founded  in  the  city 
of  New  York,  under  Dr.  John  M.  Mason,  a  semi- 


THE   UNITED  STATES.  203 

nary  that  was  long  prolific  in  producing  able  min- 
isters. Tlie  Presbyterian  Church  did  the  same  in 
1812,  at  Princeton,  New  Jersey,  under  the  excel- 
lent Dr.  Archibald  Alexander,  whose  praise  and 
works  are  in  some  measure  in  all  the  churches. 
And  thus  it  has  continued  until  this  day  in 
the  various  Presbyterian  bodies.  Besides  almost 
countless  academies  and  seminaries  for  the  higher 
training  of  both  sexes,  there  are  now  in  these 
United  States  no  less  than  33  formally  incorpo- 
rated colleges  and  universities  and  19  theological 
seminaries  under  the  banner  of  Presbyterianism. 

4.  This  Church  has  ever  been  signally  a  mis- 
sionary Church.  Very  largely  it  was  the  mission- 
ary spirit  that  brought  its  early  ministers  to  this 
country  from  the  Old  World.  Almost  commen- 
surate with  their  work  then  of  looking  after  the 
emigrants,  or  early  settlers  from  abroad,  was  the 
idea  among  many  of  them  of  having  the  gospel 
preached  to  the  Indians. 

Foremost  in  the  ranks  of  the  first  formal  mis- 
sionary organizations,  "  The  New  York  Mission- 
ary Society, '^  formed  about  the  beginning  of  this 
century,  were  the  several  branches  of  the  Pres- 
byterian fiimily.  Scarcely  had  the  ** American 
Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions  " 
been  organized  in  1810,  when  ministers  and  elders 
of  these  Churches  gave  it  their  sons  and  daughters 
to  become  its  missionaries,  and  its  substance  to 


204  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

help  forward  its  noble  work  of  evangelizing  the 
heathen.  And  how  mightily  has  this  spirit  de- 
veloped since  that  day  !  On  one  evening  about 
the  year  1831  three  good  and  now  sainted  men, 
two  of  them  honored  ministers  and  one  a  ruling 
elder,  were  walking  in  deep  thought  together  on 
the  broad  vestibule  of  the  First  Presbyterian 
church  in  this  city.  One  of  them  said  it  was 
deeply  impressed  upon  his  heart  that  the  Presby- 
terian Church  in  this  country,  in  her  own  place 
as  a  Church  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  if  she 
would  be  true  to  her  Lord  and  herself,  should  be 
engaged  in  the  work  of  sending  the  gospel  to  the 
heathen.  To  his  grateful  surprise,  each  of  the 
others  responded  that  the  same  idea  had  been 
deeply  impressed  upon  him.  "Then  let  us  rise 
and  to  the  work,"  was  the  spontaneous  cry  of 
them  all ;  and  pledging  themselves  to  Christ  and 
to  one  another,  from  this  day  they  went  forward. 
What  they  did  will  never  be  fully  known  until 
seen  in  the  light  of  the  great  day,  but  it  is  a 
marked  fact  that  on  the  24th  of  September,  1831, 
the  synod  of  Pittsburg,  to  which  they  all  belonged 
at  the  time,  organized  the  Western  Foreign  Mis- 
sionary Society.  At  the  meeting  of  the  General 
Assembly  in  1838  that  society  was  made  the 
Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  and  now 
that  branch  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  alone 
-has  114.  missionaries  in  the  foreign  field,  with  33 


THE   UNITED  STATES.  205 

ordained  native  ministers  and  59  licentiates,  at 
61  mission  stations,  with  4203  communicants  in 
native  churches,  10,681  scholars  in  mission  schools, 
and  during  lapt  year  alone  had  $4o  1,334.84  put 
into  its  foreign  mission  treasury. 

Nor  was  this  portion  of  the-  Presbyterian 
Church  alone  in  this  great  service.  In  1843  the 
Associate  Church,  and  in  1844  the  Associate  Re- 
formed, entered  upon  the  foreign  work,  and  now 
the  United  Presbyterian  Church  has  its  missions 
in  Syria,  India,  Egypt  and  China.  Later  still  the 
Reformed  Presbyterian  Church  in  its  own  inde- 
pendent character  followed ;  and  at  this  time 
every  branch  of  the  Presbyterian  family  in  these 
United  States  is  engaged  directly  or  indirectly  in 
endeavoring  to  comply  with  the  ascended  Re- 
deemer's last  command,  by  bearing  the  word  of 
life  throughout  the  world,  and  in  doing  its  part  in 
helping  to  gather  in  God's  elect  from  the  four 
winds  of  heaven. 

Finally,  this  Church  has  ever  been  a  Union 
Church.  While,  true  to  their  national  instincts, 
Presbyterians  have,  of  all  men,  pre-eminently 
thought  and  acted  for  themselves,  nnd  never  more 
so  than  in  matters  of  faith,  doctrine  and  worship, 
yet  the  aim  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  as  a 
whole  in  this  country  has  ever  been  toward  union. 
In  less  than  20  years  after  McKemie  landed  on 
this  continent  the  scattered  Presbyterians    were 

18 


i^06  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

united  in  the  first  presbytery  that  was  organized. 
In  less  than  9  years  from  the  time  when,  in 
1741,  the  old  synod  of  Philadelphia  and  New 
York  was  so  sadly  and,  as  many  felt  it,  bitterly 
divided,  movements  were  made  by  yearning 
hearts  for  a  reunion,  and  in  17  years,  or  in  1758, 
that  reunion  was  most  happily  consummated, 
wdiich  became  the  rich  germ  of  the  General 
Assembly  of  1789. 

The  Associate  Reformed  Church,  which  long 
stood  out  before  the  world  as  a  most  useful  branch 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  was  itself  the  fruit 
of  that  union  of  Associate  and  Reformed  Presby- 
terians which  was  partially  effected  in  1782.  The 
United  Presbyterian  Church  now  lifts  its  banner 
to  the  world  and  hastens  to  unfurl  it  over  destitute 
districts  of  our  own  and  foreign  lands,  as  the  re- 
sult of  the  union  of  the  Associate  and  Associate 
Reformed  Churches  in  1858.  The  Reunited 
Presbyterian  Church  presents  this  day  the  beau- 
tiful spectacle  to  God  and  the  world  of  two  bodies 
that,  amid  all  the  threatening  thick  gloom  of  a 
long  dark  night,  parted  from  one  another  in  1838, 
and  then  after  long  and  anxious  years  had  passed, 
and  as  new  light  and  a  far  better,  brighter  day 
seemed  to  dawn,  came  together  again  most  happily 
in  1870,  for  glory,  it  is  believed,  to  God  in  the 
highest,  and  that  under  his  hand  and  far  more 
widely  than  ever  before  there  may  be,  through 


THE   UNITED  STATES.  207 

lier  instrumentality,  peace  on  earth  and  good-will 
amons;  men. 

And  now,  on  this  auspicious  day,  who  may  not 
hope  for  and  anticipate  still  better  unions  in  times 
coming  ?  Only  let  there  be  increased  confidence 
among  all  the  various  parts  of  the  Presbyterian 
family  in  one  another,  a  growing  and  more  and 
more  generous  and  faithful  regard  for  each  other's 
convictions,  interests  and  work,  and  a  more  and 
more  widely  manifested  and  thorough  co-opera- 
tion with  one  another  in  all  benevolent  and 
Christian,  and  especially  Presbyterian,  movements 
for  good  to  men  and  for  glory  to  God  in  all  this 
land  and  throughout  the  world,  and  then  there 
will  a  time  draw  on — and  God  grant  it  speedily 
may  ! — when  in  all  the  long  lines  of  their  different 
national  descents  and  ecclesiastical  names,  all 
Presbyterians  in  these  United  States,  of  German 
and  French,  Holland  and  Dutch,  English  and  Pu- 
ritan, Scotch  and  Scotch-Irish, — all,  all,  shall  be 
everywhere  and  in  everything  one, — one  in  name 
and  in  fact,  in  spirit  and  in  work,  in  devotion  to 
the  truth  and  in  zeal  for  the  cause  of  the  livins: 
God,  and  stand  together  side  by  side,  liand  in 
hand  and  heart  with  heart ;  while  under  the  rich 
baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  their  strong  love 
for  one  another  as  brethren,  and  in  their  working 
together  for  the  maintenance  and  diffusion  of  the 
common  truth  and  for  the  salvation  of  the  world, 


208 


THE  TERCENTENARY. 


the  one  name  of  the  whole  as  a  true  and  most 
useful  and  glorious  part  of  the  city  of  our  God 
shall  be  everywhere  and  onward  to  the  end,  Je- 
hovah Shammah — "  The  Lord  is  there^ 

All  hail  the  blessed  day !     The  Lord  hasten  it 
in  his  time. 


The  Waldenjian  Symbol. 


Presbyterianism  in  Foreign  Lands, 


BY    THE 


Rev.    JAMES  McCOSH,    D.D.,   LL.D. 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  COLLEGE  OF  NEW  JERSEY. 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  FOREIGN  LANDS. 


i  LL  Americans  are  anxious  to  visit  Europe  at 
^  least  once  in  their  lifetime.  I  2:>ropose  to 
take  those  who  are  disposed  to  go  with  me  to  the 
land  of  their  "  fathers'  sepulchres."  I  undertake 
to  convey  you  across  the  ocean  Avitliout  any  of  the 
usual  inconveniences  of  a  sea  voyage.  But  on 
reaching  the  other  side  I  am  not  to  guide  you  to 
the  scenes  and  objects  visited  by  the  vulgar  crowd 
of  travelers  who,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  do  not  raise 
the  American  character  in  the  estimation  of  tlie 
Old  World.  As  all  travelers  of  taste  rush  to 
Switzerland,  I  would  conduct  you  thither;  not 
to  visit  those  towering  mountains  which,  as  they 
shine  so  purely  white  in  the  sunshine,  are  more 
contiguous  to  the  sky  than  the  earth ;  but  to  notice 
the  still  grander  objects  presented  in  the  charac- 
ter and  works  of  the  Reformers  of  Religion  in 
the  sixteenth  century,  who  convey  us  still  nearer 
the  heavens.  I  do  not  profess  to  be  able  to  lead 
you  to  Calvin's  grave,  for  (so  I  believe)  "  no  man 
knoweth  his  sepulchre  unto  this  day."  We  are 
to  contemplate  not  the  dead  hut  the  living  man 


211 


212  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

who  might  say,  si  monumentum  requiris  circum" 
spice.  I  am  not  to  seek  to  whiten  'Uhe  sepul- 
chres of  the  fathers,"  but  to  call  your  attention 
to  their  still  living  sj^irit  walking  abroad  through 
many  lands. 

It  is  the  peculiarity  and  the  excellence  of  the 
Reformed  Church  that  it  took  its  doctrines,  its 
government  and  its  discipline  directly  from  the 
fountain  of  the  Word,  and  not  from  the  streams 
of  tradition  which  have  become  polluted  with 
earthly  ingredients  in  their  course  through  time. 
Calvin  is  acknowledged  to  be,  par. excellence,  the 
exegete  of  the  Pj-otestant  Church,  and  his  Com- 
mentary ranks  as  high  now  as  it  did  the  day  of 
its  publication.  His  Institutes,  and  the  kindred 
works  of  the  age  on  theology,  all  profess  to  draw 
their  systems  from  the  volume  of  inspiration. 
Searching  the  Scriptures  for  the  form  of  church 
government  they  found  that  there  was  a  sanction 
given  to  councils  guarding  the  truth  and  watch- 
ing over  the  general  interests  of  the  house  of  God 
(Acts  XV.)  ;  that  tne  phrases  bishop  (Episcopos) 
and  elder  were  interchangeable  (Acts  xx.  28)  ; 
that  there  was  a  parity  among  ministers,  and  that 
besides  those  who  labored  in  word  and  doctrine, 
there  were  others,  not  teaching  but  ruling  elders 
(1  Tim.  V.  17),  who  had  a  place  in  the  discharge 
of  the  business  of  the  church. 

It  is  a  circumstance  worthy  of  being  noted  and 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  FOREIGN  LANDS.      213 

remembered  that  a  form  of  government  virtually 
Presbyterian  was  adopted  by  all  the  Eeformed 
Churches,  with  the  exception  of  the  Church  of 
England    and  the   Scandinavian   churches,   and 
these  adopted  Episcopacy  to  keep  up  a  connection 
with  the  church  from  which  they  had  separated. 
From  Geneva  the  Word  sounded  over  many  of 
the  Cantons  of  Switzerland,  over  the  most  intel- 
ligent provinces  of  France,  along  the  Ehine  and 
on  to  the  Netherlands  and  Holland.     The  Re- 
formed Churches  have  had  a  chequered  history 
in  each  of  these  countries.      In  France  and  the 
Netherlands  they  were  exposed  to  terrible  perse- 
cutions, which  they  endured  in  the  spirit  of  the 
martyrs  of  the  early  church.      It  is  said  that  the 
blood  of  the  martyrs  is  the  seed  of  the  church, 
and  I  am  convinced  that  the  blood  of  these  men 
lies  as  a  seed  in  the  soil  and  will  yet  spring  forth 
in  a  new  life.     The  remembrance  of  the  courage 
and  adherence  to  principle  shown  by  them  will 
inspire  others  to  follow  their  example.     France, 
which  promised  to  stand  so  high  among  the  na- 
tions, has  been  characterized  internally  by  insta- 
bility, and  has  had  to  come  through  one  convul- 
sion after  another  ever  since  she  expelled  her  best 
citizens,  the  Huguenots,  the  salt  of  the  land,  from 
her  borders.     I  am  convinced  that  she  will  not 
reach  rest,  that  she  will  be  driven  from  a  slavish 
superstition  to  a  scoffing  skepticism,  and  from  a 


214  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

despairing  infidelity  back  to  an  unsatisfying  cre- 
dulity, till  such  time  as  the  great  body  of  the 
people  have  the  Bible  to  instruct  them,  and  a 
Sabbath  on  which  to  read  it. 

Without  seeking  to  disparage  the  character  of 
the  great  Continental  Reformers  we  may  discover 
some  defects  in  their  views  and  conduct.  I  regret 
that  neither  Luther  nor  Calvin  uttered  so  certain 
a  sound  as  they  should  have  done  in  regard  to  the 
obligations  of  the  Sabbath.  Anxious  that  it 
should  be  kept,  they  fell  into  the  grievous  mis- 
take (so  I  regard  it)  of  founding  it  not  on  the 
granite  rock  of  Sinai,  but  on  a  shifting  expediency 
which  might  be  blown  like  the  sand  by  the  wind 
of  personal  taste  and  convenience,  or  of  popular 
demand.  When  I  travel  on  the  continent  of 
Europe,  and  see  so  many  of  the  people  toiling  at 
all  kinds  of  works  on  the  Sunday  forenoon,  and 
then  dissipating  in  the  beer  and  dancing  gardens 
on  the  afternoon  and  evening,  I  ask  what  time  have 
they  for  reading  the  Bible  and  for  serious  reflec 
tion  ;  and  I  am  told  in  reply  that  even  the  Prot- 
estant people,  having  no  Sabbath,  do  not  read  the 
Scriptures  so  habitually  as  in  this  country,  nor 
incorporate  its  teachings  with  their  opinions  and 
life. 

Many  in  this  country  will  be  apt  to  detect  a 
further  defect  in  the  theoretical  belief  and  prac- 
tical accompaniments  both  of  the  German  and 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  FOREIGN  LANDS.     215 

Swiss  Keformers.     They  will  tell  you  that  they 
allowed  too  close  a  connection  between  the  spirit- 
ual and  temporal  kingdoms';  in  other  words,  be- 
tween the  Church  and  State.     No  doubt  it  will  be 
said,  on  the  other  side,  that  as  both  of  these  are 
under  the  one  God,  they  may  lawfully  unite  for 
common    ends.     It  will    be  urged    further,  that 
when  Protestants  were  few  and  scattered  and  poor, 
in  the  midst  of  powerful   and  bitter  Romish  ad- 
versaries, they  needed  the  protection  of  kings  and 
queens,  who  were  predicted  as  becoming  nursing 
fathers  and  nursing  mothers  of  the  Church.  Isa. 
xlix.  23.     Without  entering  on  this  controversy 
of  ages,  and  without  venturing  to  pronounce  a 
condemnation  on  the  great  men  who  labored  to 
bring  the  two  powers  into  union,  I  feel   myself 
called  on  to  deplore  that  the  Church  should  ever 
have  consented  to  become  subject  to  the  State  in 
the  s])iritual  matters  committed  to  it  by  Christ. 
Statesmen,  failing  to  distinguish,  perhaps  incapa- 
ble of  distinguishing,  between  truth   and  error, 
countenanced  error  quite  as  readily  as  truth  ;  nay, 
often,  specially  fostered  error,  especially   in  the 
form  of  rationalism,  as  in  no  way  likely  to  trouble 
them  with  its  zeal  and  its  courage.     The  great 
body  of  church  members  would  never  have  con- 
tributed  of  their  substance  to  support  the  cold 
Socinian  ministers,  who  on  account  of  their  in- 
difference were  warmly  cherished  by  })oliticians. 


'216  THE  TERCENTENARY, 

From  whatever  cause,  rationalism  with  its  wither- 
ing influence  spread  extensively  for  ages  in  the 
Keformed  Churches  of  Switzerland,  Germany 
and  Holland  ;  and  state  support  kept  together  men 
who  believed  and  men  who  did  not  believe  in  the 
divinity  of  Christ,  men  who  believed  and  men 
who  did  not  believe  in  the  inspiration  of  Scripture. 
But  whatever  maybe  the  difference  of  opinion  as 
to  the  wisdom  of  the  Reformers,  there  will  be 
none  in  this  assemblv  as  to  what  should  now  be  the 
action  of  the  Continental  Churches.  In  former 
ages  many  were  afraid  that  if  the  scattered 
churches  were  severed  from  the  State,  they  would 
be  crushed  under  the  heel  of  civil  or  ecclesiastical 
despotism.  But  there  is  no  risk  of  this  in  our 
day.  Even  Bismarck,  great  man  though  he  be, 
must  be  taught  that  he  has  no  right  to  dictate  to 
the  churches,  Po]:)ish  or  Protestant,  but  must  leave 
them  to  their  free  action,  claiming  only  to  punish 
those  wdio  disobey  the  civil  law  of  the  country, 
whether  they  be  lay  or  ecclesiastical. 

Let  the  churches  of  France,  Germany,  Switzer- 
land and  Holland  be  made  to  feel  that  they  are 
to  depend  on  the  living  members  of  the  church, 
and  I  venture  to  predict  that  in  an  age  from  this 
date  rationalism  and  infidelity  will  die  out  for 
want  of  support  in  the  professing  Church  of  God. 

For  ages  past  the  Protestant  Church  of  France 
had  its  fervor  cooled  and  its  energy  crippled  by 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  FOREIGN  LANDS.        217 

the  dreadful  corpse  of  infidelity,  to  which  it 
has  been  tied.  But  thanks  be  to  God,  the  liv- 
ing Church  has  cast  off  the  dead  incubus  and 
is  ready  to  go  forth  in  newness  of  life  on  all 
Christian  enterprises.  Lazarus  has  come  fortli 
from  the  grave,  and  what  is  now  required  is  that 
we  loose  him  and  set  him  free.  The  French 
Evangelical  Church,  delivered  from  an  unnatural 
connection,  will  be  brought  into  natural  and  hearty 
communion  with  her  sister  evangelical  churches 
throughout  the  world.  There  must  surely  be 
something  of  a  like  process  to  separate  the  living 
from  the  dead  in  the  churches  of  Germany  and 
Holland,  so  crippled  by  rationalism.  For  years 
past  there  has  been  in  Holland  a  devoted  band 
of  men  who  have  come  out  from  the  Established 
Church  with  its  rampant  infidelity.* 

The  transition  from  Geneva  to  Scotland  is  an 
easy  one,  and  there  we  meet  with  John  Knox, 
worthy  of  being  placed  alongside  of  Luther  and 
Calvin — greater  indeed  than  either  in  action  : 
the  "  reformer  of  a  kingdom,"  as  Milton  called 
him,  one  "  who  feared  not  the  face  of  man."  The 
character  of  Knox,  appreciated  by  the  best  (but  not 
by  the  worst)  of  Scotchmen,  and  thoroughly  de- 
fended by  that  most  accurate  of  historians.  Dr. 
McCrie,  has  been  misunderstood  by  others,  espe- 

*  The  Reformed  Churches  in  Austria  (espechilly  in  Hungary), 
amounting  in  all  to  two  thousand,  are  in  a  very  interesting  state. 

19 


218  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

cially  Episcopalian-  Englishmen,  who  have  taught 
us  to  look  upon  Knox  as  a  vulgar  bear,  and  I  may 
add,  upon  Oliver  Cromwell  as  a  hypocritical  fox. 
But  a  strong  reactionary  tide  has  set  in  of  late 
among  literary  men.  It  was  set  in  motion  by 
Carlyle,  who  certainly  has  no  sympathy  with  the 
principles  of  Knox,  but  greatly  admires  his  hero- 
ism. The  first  Englishman  who  understood  the 
character  of  Knox  was  Mr.  Froude,  who  has  pro- 
claimed him  a  man  of  tender  feelings  and  a  perfect 
gentleman,  and  the  most  far-sighted  statesman  of 
his  age,  who  not  only  sustained  the  Church  of 
Scotland  in  its  infancy,  but  by  his  firm  policy 
maintained  Protestantism  in  England  when  it  was 
in  imminent  danger.  Knox  impressed  his  own 
character  upon  the  Scottish  Church  and  through 
it  upon  the  Scottish  character.  Henceforth  we 
have  a  Church  distinguished  beyond  any  other  for 
its  principle  and  for  its  fearlessness.  It  held,  as  all 
the  Churches  of  the  Reformation  did,  that  the 
State  should  support  the  Church  ;  but  it  held  as 
resolutely  that  in  spiritual  matters  the  Church 
should  be  independent,  free  to  follow  the  Master's 
will  as  revealed  in  the  Word.  The  Covenanting 
struggle,  in  which  the  ministers  and  the  best  of 
the  people  combined  to  resist  the  attempt  to  im- 
pose a  lordly  prelacy  upon  them,  and  had  in  con- 
sequence to  submit  to  twenty-eight  years  of  per- 
secution, was  the  most  memorable  occurrence  in 


PRESBYTERIAN  ISM  IN  FOREIGN  LANDS     211) 

the  history  of  the  country  (Sir  Walter  Seott  never 
understood  this),  and  the  main  agent  in  giving  a 
character  to  the  nation.  English  historians — siieJi 
as  Macaulay,  who  speaks  lightly  of  the  Puritans 
as  standing  up  for  the  rights  of  conscience — have 
not  yet  come  to  see  the  importance  of  that  Cove- 
nanting contest.  While  the  Puritans  of  England 
contented  themselves  with  passive  resistance,  the 
Covenanters  openly  resisted  the  tyrannical  meas- 
ures of  the  house  of  Stuart,  and  held  up  the  hlue 
flag  on  their  mountains  till  the  English  people 
had  to  demand  a  Revolution. 

In  the  following  century  two  bands,  the  Seces- 
sion (in  1733)  and  the  Relief  (in  1752),  left  the 
Established  Church,  or  rather  were  driven  out  of 
it,  because  they  would  not  submit  to  have  the 
nominees  of  Patrons  thrust  upon  congregations 
contrary  to  the  will  of  the  people.  These  two 
bodies  united  in  1847,  and  now  constitute  the 
United  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland,  which 
has  upward  of  six  hundred  congregations.  In  1843, 
between  four  hundred  and  five  hundred  of  us,  after 
a  ten  years'  contest  for  the  spiritual  independence 
of  the  Church  and  the  liberties  of  the  j^eople,  gave 
up  our  livings  and  formed  the  Free  Church  of 
Scotland,  which  has  now  nearly  nine  hundred 
congregations,  and  by  a  scheme  devised  by  Dr. 
Chalmers,  aims  at  securing  in  an  unendowed 
church    what   an    endowed    church    provides,   a 


220  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

decent  sustenance  for  an  educated  ministry  in  the 
poorest  districts  of  great  cities  and  among  the 
scattered  populations  of  the  rural  districts. 

The  Church  of  Scotland  thus  consists  of 
three  considerably  large  bodies :  the  Established 
Church,  the  United  Presbyterian  Church  and  the 
Free  Church,  besides  a  devoted  band  of  Cove- 
nanters, who  did  not  see  their  way  to  join  the  Es- 
tablished Church  at  the  Revolution  Settlement. 

The  Established  Church  of  Scotland  was 
greatly  weakened  by  yielding  to  tlie  encroach- 
ments of  the  civil  courts  and  by  tlie  disruption 
that  followed.  But  it  still  holds  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  population  of  Scotland — not  one 
half,  but  more  than  one  third.  It  has  within  it 
a  body  of  able  and  accomj^lished  ministers,  and 
some  of  its  professors  of  theology  are  expounding 
the  old  doctrines  in  a  clear  and  faithful  manner. 
But  the  Church  is  in  an  ambiguous  position,  hold- 
ing the  State  endowments  with  only  a  minority  of 
the  people  adhering  to  it.  Since  the  disruption  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  especially  since  the 
Church  of  Ireland  was  disestablished,  every  one 
sees  that  the  davs  of  Established  Churches  in 
Great  Britain  are  numbered.  To  uphold  them, 
certain  ministers  of  the  Scottish  Church  have 
been  drawing  toward  and  aping  the  character  of 
the  Broad  Church  party  in  the  Established  Church 
of  England,  and  have  been  asking  such  men   as 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  FOREIGN  LANDS.     221 

Dean  Stanley  and  Professor  Jowett  to  preach  in 
their  pulpits.  When  the  party  shall  be  fully  de- 
veloped, it  will  resemble,  as  much  as  a  body  in 
the  nineteenth  century  can  resemble  a  body  in 
the  eighteenth,  the  3foderates  who  for  two  or  three 
ages  so  restrained  the  earnest  piety  of  Scotland. 
Meanwhile,  it  is  23leasant  to  reflect  that  the  Church 
retains  its  old  standards,  the  Westminster  confes- 
sion and  catechisms,  and  I  believe  that  nearly  all 
the  children  of  its  members  are  instructed  in  the 
Word  of  God  and  in  the  Shorter  Catechism. 

The  United  Presbyterian  Church  is  an  ac- 
tive and  energetic  body,  having  influential  con- 
gregations in  some  of  the  great  cities  (such  as 
Glagsow)  and  villages.  Though  as  a  Church  it 
has  not  adopted  Voluntaryism,  yet  the  great  body 
of  its  ministers  and  members  are  opposed  to  the 
union  of  Church  and  State  in  any  circumstances. 
It  is  heartily  in  favor  of  an  organic  union  with  the 
Free  Church,  and  longs  for  fellow^ship  with  all 
evangelical  communions. 

The  Free  Church  of  Scotland. — I  confess 
that  I  cannot  speak  of  this  Church  coolly.  I  still 
regard  it  as  in  a  sense  the  Church  to  which  I 
belong,  albeit  that  I  am  now  an  office-bearer  in 
the  Presbyterian  Church  of  America.  It  was 
my  privilege  when  a  very  young  man  to  take 
part  in  the  struggle,  first  when  a  student  defend- 
ing the  cause  in  the  Theological  Societies  of  Edin- 

19* 


222  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

burgh  University ;  and  then  as  a  minister,  seek- 
ing in  concert  with  the  Rev.  Dr.  Guthrie  and  a 
few  young  men  to  excite  an  interest  in  the  cause 
in  an  important  district  in  the  east  coast  of  Scot- 
land. When  the  crisis  came,  I  gave  up  my  living, 
one  of  the  most  enviable  in  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, and  labored  to  plant  churches  in  the  sur- 
rounding country.  That  Church  has  been  holding 
on  its  course  resolutely  and  consistently  for  nearly 
thirty  years.  It  is  said,  by  those  who  know  it 
best,  to  need  a  special  outpouring  of  the  Spirit, 
to  rouse  it  from  formality  and  keep  it  from  trust- 
ing in  the  sacrifices  it  has  made. 

You  Americans  wonder  that  the  various 
branches  of  the  Scottish  Church  do  not  unite. 
Let  us  look  at  the  difficulties,  real  or  supposed,  in 
the  way.  The  Church  of  Scotland  has  always 
regarded  it  as  one  of  its  highest  offices  to  hold 
and  defend  the  truth,  which  is  one  and  the 
same  in  all  ages,  and  it  insists  that  the  truth  should 
be  maintained  all  the  more  resolutely  in  times 
of  prevailing  defection.  It  cannot  be  doubted 
that  it  has  done  a  mighty  work  by  its  firmness  in 
this  respect.  Those  who  sacrifice  truth  for  the 
sake  of  union  will  find  that  the  union  is  not  a 
lasting  one,  or  a  profitable  one  while  it  lasts. 
The  office-bearers  of  the  Free  Church,  when  in 
the  Established  Church,  held  by  tlie  doctrine  of 
a  State  Church,  and  some  of  them  feel  it  to  be 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  FOREIGN  LANDS.      223 

inconsistent  to  join  a  cliurcli  the  great  body  of 
the  members  of  which  have  abandoned  this  prin- 
ciple. The  answer  is,  I  believe,  complete.  First, 
they  are  not  required,  in  joining  the  Union,  to 
abandon  their  principle.  Secondly,  those  whom 
they  join  hold  as  resolutely  as  they  do — and  I 
may  add  that  the  American  churches  do  the 
same — that  every  government  should  honor  Christ 
and  his  laws.  All  acknowledge  that  every  ex- 
isting Established  Church  is  Erastian  and  cor- 
rupt, and  the  controversy  turns  on  the  theoretical 
point  whether  the  principle  of  State  Endowment 
is  so  important  that  those  who  hold  it  may  not 
lawfully  enter  into  a  union  in  which  they  are 
allowed  to  hold  the  principle,  but  in  which  are 
some  who  do  not  hold  it.  In  spite  of  the  diffi- 
culties which  have  arisen,  I  am  convinced  that 
the  Union  will  at  no  distant  date  be  accomplished. 
The  United  Presbyterian  Church  and  the  Cove- 
nanting Church,  and  the  great  majority  of  the 
ministers,  elders  and  members  of  the  Free 
Church,  are  in  its  favor. 

Presbyterianism:  in  England  had  considera- 
ble power  in  the  seventeenth  century.  A  large 
body  of  the  Puritans  were  attached  to  it.  But 
they  were  hindered  from  meeting  as  Presbyteries, 
and  the  ministers  satisfied  themselves  with  the 
liberty  allowed  them  to  i^reach  the  gospel ;  and  the 
religious  life  took  the  Independent  form  of  gov- 


224  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

ernment.  During  the  whole  of  the  last  century 
and  the  first  half  of  this,  Presby  terianism  had  to 
struggle  in  England  against  very  adverse  circum- 
stances. But  it  has  all  along  had  a  place,  and  it  has 
now  a  firmer  hold  than  ever,  having  more  than 
doubled  its  numbers  during  the  last  few  years. 
The  Presbyterian  Church  of  England  is  a  self- 
governed  body,  but  is  in  close  fellowship  with  the 
Free  Church  of  Scotland.  The  United  Presby- 
terian Church  in  England  is  still  a  part  of  the 
United  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland.  The 
two  bodies  in  England  are  on  the  very  best  terms. 
They  have  not  united  simply  because  they  have 
been  waiting  for  the  union  of  the  parent  churches 
in  Scotland.  But  as  the  mother  churches  have  been 
slow  in  their  movements,  there  is  a  prospect  of 
the  daughters  taking  the  matter  into  their  own 
hands,  and  uniting  at  once.  If  they  do  so,  the 
act  will,  I  believe,  have  a  powerful  reflex  influ- 
ence on  the  people  of  Scotland. 

The  Welsh  Calvinistic  Chuech  has  had  a 
history  full  of  stirring  incidents,  of  labors  and 
trials,  of  difiiculties  and  success.  It  has  now  a 
thousand  churches.  It  sprang  up  in  a  country  in 
which  the  Church  of  England  exhibited  its  worst 
corruptions.  Bishops  and  clergymen  who  would 
not  have  been  tolerated  in  England  were  sent  in 
the  last  century  to  Wales,  where  they  were  not  so 
fully  under  the  inspection  of  public  opinion.    The 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  FOREIGN  LANDS.     22& 

praying  jDeasantry  felt  that  they  must  do  some- 
thing to  strengthen  what  was  ready  to  die,  and  God 
raised  up  such  heroic  men  as  Howell  Harris,  Daniel 
Rowlands  and  Howell  Davies,  who  preached  and 
prayed    and    sufiered   obloquy  in  the   spirit  of 
Whitfield,    who   visited    and   encouraged    them. 
Taking  their  views  directly  from  the  Bible,  they 
became  Calvinistic  in  doctrine  and  Presbyterian 
in  government.     In  Wales  preaching  exercises  a 
greater  influence  than  in  any  country  with  which 
I  am  acquainted,  reminding  us  of  the  effects  pro- 
duced by  eloquence  in  ancient  times  and  in  the 
early  Church.     Fifteen  or  twenty  thousand  may 
gather  at  their  Quarterly   Meeting;    and  when 
John  Elias  used  to  preach,  the  mighty  mass  was 
moved  and  bowed  down  as  the  trees  of  the  forest 
are  by  the  tempest.     The  Church  has  not  been 
able  to  secure  everywhere  an  educated  ministry, 
but  they  are  busily  employed  in  setting  up  Theo- 
logical Seminaries  and  Colleges  in  Wales;  and 
they  are  longing,  as  1  can  testify,  for  a  closer  con- 
nection with  their  sister  churches  throughout  the 
world. 

The  IiiisH  Presbyterian  Church  is  the 
oldest  and  one  of  the  fairest  of  the  daughters  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland.  The  American  Presby- 
terian Church  will  not  forget  that  it  is  through 
the  Irish  Church  she  claims  descent  from  that 
Church,  which  is  the  mother  of  us  all.     Having 


226  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

been  connected  with  that  Church  for  sixteen 
years,  I  can  speak  with  a  full  knowledge  of  its 
workings,  and  I  am  able  to  testify  in  the  strongest 
manner  of  the  spirit  by  which  it  is  actuated  and 
the  zeal  which  it  manifests.  Many  of  its  younger 
ministers  were  my  pupils.  I  watch  their  career 
with  deep  interest,  and  am  delighted  to  observe 
some  of  them  occupying  the  very  highest  posi- 
tions in  the  Church.  It  long  clung  to  the  Royal 
Bounty  bestowed  by  the  Crown,  but  three  years 
ago  it  was  deprived  of  this,  and  has  not  felt  the 
loss.  It  has  organized  a  General  Sustentation 
Fund,  out  of  which  the  ministers  receive  more 
than  they  did  from  the  Government.  That 
Church  has  a  great  work  to  do  in  Ireland,  and 
I  believe  it  will  do  it.  You  will  meet  nowhere 
with  a  more  devoted  ministry.  They  do  their 
work  with  all  the  life  of  the  Irish  character. 

The  Colonial  Churches  of  Scotland  and 
Ireland.  These  are  to  be  found  chiefly  in  Canada 
and  Australia.  Set  up  by  the  individual  churches 
at  home,  they  were  at  first  inclined  to  perpetuate 
in  the  Colonies  the  divisions  of  the  old  country. 
But  they  have  been  gradually  driven  from  this 
by  conviction  and  the  force  of  circumstances,  and 
in  each  of  the  colonies  in  British  America,  in 
Australia  and  in  New  Zealand,  the  churches  are 
organized  into  one.  Having  shown  an  enlarged 
and  truly  liberal  spirit  in  joining  with  one  another, 


PBESBYTEBIANISM  IN  FOREIGN  LANDS.      227 

they  are  prepared,  I  believe  longing,  to  be  delivered 
from  a  state  of  isolation  in  their  remote  spheres 
of  action,  and  to  unite  with  the  other  Presbyterian 
churches.  The  Presbyterian  Church  of  Canada 
is  the  largest  in  the  colony  next  to  the  Romanist ; 
and  I  have  long  thought  that  much  good  might 
arise  from  a  closer  association  in  fellowship  and  in 
work  between  it  and  the  Presbyterian  churches 
in  the  United  States.  The  ministers  in  these 
British  Colonies  have,  in  many  places,  a  rough 
and  self-sacrificing  work  to  perform,  but  they  are 
doing  it  in  the  same  manner  and  spirit  as  your 
ministers  in  the  Far  West.  To  make  their  churches 
permanent,  and  to  give  them  more  of  a  native 
and  less  of  an  imported  character,  they  are  estab- 
lishing Colleges  and  Theological  Seminaries,  and 
are  everywhere  promoting  education  after  the  ex- 
ample of  the  mother  church.  You  will  remem- 
ber that  this  country  was  once  a  colony  of  Great 
Britain,  and  I  cherish  the  idea  that  the  Presby- 
terian Church  of  Australia  may,  at  the  antipodes, 
do  a  work  similar  to  that  which  has  been  done  by 
the  Presbyterian  Church  in  this  country. 

In  this  extensive  journey  we  have  been  obliged 
to  travel — as  most  Americans  do — very  rapidly. 
It  is  reckoned  that  if  you  sum  up  these  churches 
and  then  add  to  them  those  of  America,  they 
amount  to  twenty  thousand  congregations,  and  a 
po23ulation  of  thirty-four  millions.     If  you  add 


228  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

the  Lutherans  who,  in  many  j)arts  of  Germany, 
are  one  with  the  Reformed,  and  who  are  nearer  to 
Presbyterianism  than  they  are  either  to  Episco- 
pacy or  Independency,  we  have  a  population  of 
fifty-five  out  of  one  hundred  and  seven  millions 
of  Protestants,  or  an  actual  majority  of  the  Prot- 
estants of  the  world.  I  insert  a  valuable  statisti- 
cal table  taken  from  "The  Government  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Christ,  an  Inquiry  as  to  the  Scrip- 
tural, Invincible  and  Historical  Position  of 
Presbytery,  a  Prize  Essay  by  Pev.  James  Moir 
Porteous."*  This  is  a  very  valuable  work  con- 
taining a  defence  of  the  Presbyterian  form  of 
government,  and  full  information  as  to  the 
state  of  the  Presbyterian  churches  all  over  the 
world. 

What  a  power  for  good,  every  one  will  say,  if 
only  these  churches  can  be  made  to  combine  in 
their  action.  In  inquiring  what  we  should  do  as 
we  look  to  this  immense  community,  I  think  we 
should  have  three  grand  aims  before  us.  The 
first  is_to_separate  the  Evangelical  Churches  from^ 
that  Pationalism  which  is  so  marring  the  useful- 
ness1)f  Protestantism  all  over  the  Continent  of^ 
Europe.  The  second  is  to  deliver  them,  if  not 
from  State  connection,  aj  least  from  State  control, 
which  has  ever  been  protecting  Pationalism  with 
its  coTdness  and  its  deadening  influence.     A  third 

^  Edin. :  Jolinstone  &  Hunter ;  London  :  James  Nisbet  &  Co. 


PRESBYTERIANISM  IN  FOREIGN  LANDS.        229 


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230  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

and  a  grand  effort  must  be  made.  We  must  com- 
bine the  scattered  energies  of  theseTEiTrty-four 
millions  for  the  overthrow  of  the  powers  of  dark- 
ness and  the  spread  of  the  Gospel  throughout  the 
world.  Let  us  pray  for  this  end,  and  at  the  same 
time  labor  for  it. 

It  has  long  been  a  favorite  idea  of  mine  that 
all  the  Presbyterian  churches  might  be  brought 
together  at  a  Pan-Presbyterian  Council,  at  which 
each  of  them"might  be  represented.  Let  it  be 
understood  that  I  do  not  propose  breaking 
up  the  separate  churches  of  British  and  Con- 
tinental Europe,  or  of  this  country.  I  would 
no  more  think  of  this,  than  I  would  of  sepa- 
ratino;  the  States  of  our  Union.  In  our  Gen- 
eral  Government  and  in  our  State  Governments, 
we  have  a  model  to  which  we  might  look,  in  settling 
the  relation  which  the  several  churches  might 
bear  to  the  central  church  organization.  Some 
grand  principles  might  be  agreed  to  ;  let  them  be 
few  and  simple.  Of  course  there  must  be  a  doc- 
trinal basis.  But  this  should  not  consist  in  a 
new  creed  or  confession.  Let  each  church  retain 
its  own  standards,  and  be  admitted  into  the  Union 
only  "^n  condition  that  these  einbrace  the  cardinal 
trutlis_of_ salvation.  There  must  also  be  certain 
princij)les  of  church  order  pre-supposed :  such  as 
the  parity  of  ministers,  and  government  by  repre- 
sentative councils,  in  which  ministers  and  elders 


PRESBYTEBIANISM  IN  FOREIGN  LANDS.     231 

have  a  joint  place.  But  the  mode  of  carrying 
out  these  principles  must  be  left  to  each  organiza- 
tion— in  this  way  securing  that  we  have  in  the 
church,  as  in  all  the  works  of  God,  unity  with 
variety.  The  Grand  Council  should  have  au- 
thority to  see  that  their  fundamental  j)i*inciples 
of  doctrine  and  of  government  are  carried  out  in 
eacTi  of  the  churches,  and  might  cut  off  those  that 
deliherately  departed  from  them  in  act  or  in  pro- 
fession. But  beyond  this  it  need  have  no  other 
disciplinary  power.  Without  interfering  at  all 
with  the  free  action  of  the  churches,  it  might 
distribute  judiciously  the  evangelistic  work  in 
the  great  field,  which  is  the  world :  allocating  a 
sphere  to  each,  discouraging  the  plantation  oT" 
two  churches  where  one  might  serve,  and  the  es- 
tablisliment  of  two  missions  at  one  place,  while 
hundreds  of  other  places  have  none.  In  this 
way  the  resources  of  the  church  would  be  kept 
from  being  wasted,  while  her  energies  would  be 
concentrated  on  great  enterprises.  When  cir- 
cumstances require  it,  the  whole  strength  of  the 
church  might  be  directed  to  the  establishment  of 
truth  and  the  suppression  of  error  and  prevalent 
forms  of  vice.  More  important  than  all,  from 
this  heart  of  the  church  might  proceed  an  im- 
pulse reaching  to  the  utmost  extremities,  and 
carrying  life  to  every  member. 

I  believe  that  the  idea  of  such  a  union  has  oc- 


^32  THE  TERCENTENARY. 

curred  to  many  within  the  last  few  years.  I  do 
not  claim  to  myself  any  superiority  of  wisdom ; 
but  for  the  last  ten  years  I  have  been  speaking 
and  writing  on  this  subject  in  a  variety  of 
quarters.  I  was  met  with  a  rightTrish  cheer 
wHen  r  proclaimed  it  in  the  General  Assembly 
of  the  Irish  Presbyterians.  I  unfolded  my  views 
more  lully  in  an  article  in  the  Weekly  Review,  an 
able  organ  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  published 
in  London.  I  believe  I  spoke  of  it  at  the  meet- 
ings of  both  General  Assemblies  at  St.  Louis  in 
1866.  I  scarcely  expect  to  live  so  long  as  to  see 
it  accomplished ;  but  there  are  some  here,  I  verily 
believe,  who  will  see  it  with  their  eyes. 

My  Scottish  partialities  would  lead  me  to  think 
that  Edinburgh,  the  city  of  Knox  and  of  Chal- 
mers, might  be  the  most  appropriate  place  for  the 
first  meeting  of  the  Presbyterian  General  Assem- 
bly. But  if  our  common  mother  there  say  that 
her  children  are  not  yet  prepared  to  meet  to- 
gether, then  let  one  of  her  daughters  open  her 
house  for  the  reception  of  the  family.  Let  the 
largest  Presbyterian  church  in  the  world  issue 
the  invitation,  and  let  the  meeting-place  be  the 
City  of  BrotherJ|,juLave. 


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DATE  DUE 


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